By Ayodele Abel
Following the suspicion that a Chinese citizen, presently admitted at Reddington hospital, Lagos, might have contacted Coronavirus, the Lagos State government, through its Ministry of Health, has said that the patient has tested negative to the infection.
In a statement, the Director of Public Affairs, Mr. Tunbosun Ogunbanwo, quoted the Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, as saying that tests carried out on the patient show that the likelihood of him to have contacted COVID-19 infection was very low and the conclusion of investigations confirms that there is no case of Coronavirus in Lagos State as of now.
“I would like to reassure Lagosians that our vigilance levels are very high and we are putting more measures in place to safe guard the State”, he said.
While giving details of the investigation, the commissioner explained that the ministry’s attention was drawn to a suspected case of Corona Virus at Reddington Hospital; a private health facility located at Ikeja.
“From our investigation, we gathered that a Chinese citizen who arrived in Nigeria from China seven weeks ago presented at Reddington Hospital yesterday complaining about fever. The hospital in keeping with the advisory we earlier issued, correctly maintained a high index of suspicion, isolated the patient and reported the case to the Ministry.
We took up the case, transferred the patient to the State Isolation Unit at the Mainland hospital which is our specialised infectious disease hospital. His blood samples were taken to the Virology laboratory for analysis and it came out negative”, the statement stated.
The commissioner appealed to citizens to refrain from posting unverified news that can cause unnecessary anxiety in community, and urged Lagosians to disregard any information about the diseases that does not emanate from official communication channels of the Ministry of Health or his office.