Professor Akin Abayomi, Commissioner for Health in Lagos State has said COVID-19 clinical trials in Lagos will soon commence in the state.
Speaking at a briefing on Tuesday, he said that they were partnering with stakeholders like the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and others to ensure the success of the trial.
He said;
There are a lot of research going on around the world, so it is possible that at some time in the near future, we will have what we may describe as a definitive cure for COVID-19.
Abayomi expressed that;
Indeed, we are setting up our own clinical trials in Lagos in collaboration with other institutions and the NCDC and hopefully by this time next week, we should have started some clinical trials on our patients and our staff in Lagos State.
He revealed that there are three testing sites in Lagos and are looking to activate some other sites.
The commissioner said the three sites are Lagos State Biobank at Yaba Mainland Hospital, Department of Virology in the Lagos University Teaching Hospital and the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research.
Meanwhile, Professor Abayomi, during a presentation at the state Secretariat on Monday, said the hoax calls received by the Lagos State Emergency responders are very distracting in managing the outbreak in the state and across the nation, Premium Times reports.
While giving a breakdown of the calls, the health commissioner noted that 59% of the calls were from NCDC diverted to Lagos, while 27% were put through to the Lagos state 08000CORONA and 14% were random calls received by the commissioner himself and other officials.
He further explained that 31,040 were hoax calls from members of the public for fun, pranks or to pass insults to health workers.
The health commissioner expressed worry over the calls as they are disturbing the interventions of the government.
He said;
We have completed and closed down the cases of 95 percent of all the alerts, four percent of them were not reachable and one percent is still in process.
Out of the nine percent, only four percent of the calls actually resulted in a red flag where health workers are either sent to get a sample of the patients or retrieve them for isolation and treatment.
Professor Abayomi added that he is very concerned about the hoax calls because they are reasons why many complain that the centre is unreachable as “our lines are being jammed by irresponsible members of the society.”
The commissioner urged Nigerians to stop making hoax calls, the use of aggressive language to staff and pranking health workers.
