Lagos coronavirus cases may reach 120,000 by August — State Govt

Confirmed cases of coronavirus in Lagos may reach 120,000 at the peak of the pandemic between July and August, the state government has said.

The Commissioner of Health in the state, Akin Abayomi, said on Friday that the state is likely to record between 90,000 and 120,000 cases during that period.

Mr Abayomi said this on Friday at a press briefing held at the Lagos state secretariat.

The commissioner said this figure is according to the COVID-19 projection model of the state and does not mean it is the exact figure that will be recorded.

“Just a month ago, on April 7 we saw 10 cases per day, two weeks later it was 32, then 70 cases. We are now seeing above 100 cases per day. This shows our graph is moving in a gentle incline upwards.

“We definitely have not reached the peak of our outbreak, we suspect that the peak will happen sometime in July or August and so we are preparing for the oncoming, we are increasing our capacity and strategies to deal with this situation,” Mr Abayomi said.

In preparation for the peak period, the commissioner said the state is decentralizing some of the sample collection centres to increase efficiency in combating coronavirus.

Mr Abayomi said as of Friday, the state has 1491 positive cases and if not for the strategies implemented, the state would have recorded 6,000 cases by now.

“The combination of Lagos state strategies and perhaps some resilience of our communities is responsible for the low index of cases and fatalities that we are seeing in Lagos state,” he said.

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As of Friday, the state has 1037 active cases of COVID-19, 422 discharged cases and 33 deaths.

Speaking on testing, the Commissioner said the testing arrangement is that only people with symptoms are tested.

“Many people will have the infection and will not know because they do not have symptoms and they will recover,” he said.

He added that there is a gradual increase in the number of positive cases across local government areas in the state.

There is an increase in Alimisoho, Oshodi and Iyana Isolo, there are new cases in Ojo, and increase in Mushin, ikeja and kosofe local government areas, he said.

Mr Abayomi enjoined Lagos residents to engage the ministry on the toll-free line; 08000CORONA, adding that the level of engagement is low.