The Lagos State Government has affirmed that the Chinese citizen presented at the Reddington Hospital, Ikeja on Wednesday on suspicion of being infected with Coronavirus has tested negative.
Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, made this known through a press statement on Thursday, noting that “the likelihood of COVID-19 infection in this particular patient was very low and the conclusion of investigations and sophisticated testing confirmed that no case of Coronavirus exists in Lagos State till date.”
“I would like to reassure Lagosians that our vigilance levels are very high and we are putting more measures in place to safeguard the state,” he said.
While giving details of the investigations, Abayomi explained that “the Ministry of Health’s attention was drawn to a suspected case of Coronavirus at Reddington Hospital, a private health facility located at Ikeja but from our investigations, we gathered that a Chinese citizen who arrived Nigeria from China seven weeks ago was presented at Reddington Hospital yesterday (Wednesday) 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.”
Abayomi appealed to citizens to refrain from posting unverified news that could cause unnecessary anxiety in the community and urged residents to disregard any information about the novel Coronavirus that does not emanate from official communication channels of the Ministry of Health or his office.