The Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Professor Akin Abayomi has disclosed that cases of coronavirus in the state could rise to as high as 39,000 cases in the coming weeks.
Abayomi while giving a graphical description shortly after a press briefing at Alausa, Ikeja, on Friday, said about 3,000 primary contacts of persons who have tested positive were being traced on a daily basis, adding that the numbers could rise if such persons are not observing the rule of self isolation or social distancing.
His words, “The projection is that we could have cases as high as 39,000, but with our strategy of tracing primary contacts of victims and our constant follow up, it may not exceed 13,000.
“The state is making significant progress. We are not saying that we will not see more, but compared to what is happening around the world, we are doing quite well.
“Therefore, we have to make sure that we practice aggresive social distancing.. if we carry on with out strategy we will not give the disease the opportunity to spread.”
He however, said the current statistics compared to other countries after four weeks shows that the country was getting it right with containing and curtailing the virus.
According to him,“We are doing something right in Lagos. Then if we continue to do that then we will remain on the lower trajectory.
“It shows we are keeping the curve flat which is allowing us to keep up with number of cases we have so far. Until the virus runs out of wind, the curve will flatten, bend and continue to reduce.
“At four weeks, Spain and Italy had thousands of cases, but after four weeks we have just 37. Our data shows that Lagos and Nigeria are doing very well in containing this virus,” he said.
