As Nigeria battles to curtail the spread of the deadly Coronavirus pandemic, the Lagos State Ministry of Health has said that four new cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in the state.
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This latest figure brings to 12 the total number of coronavirus cases in Nigeria, although one of the victims has reportedly recovered from the virus.
This comes barely a day after the Federal Ministry of Health confirmed five new cases of the virus.
Addressing journalists on the new cases on Thursday at the state secretariat, Alausa, the Commissioner for Health, Akin Abayomi, said that 19 tests were performed on suspected cases and contacts of the five cases announced on Wednesday, out of which four turned positive.
Disclosing the persons involved, it was gathered that the first positive test is that of a Nigerian female who returned from France via a Turkish airline (TK 1830) on March 14.
The second confirmed case is a Nigerian male in his 50s who had never travelled anywhere. He tested positive and had since been admitted.
Abayomi said the third case is a Nigerian male who arrived in Nigeria on March 13, from Frankfurt, Germany, on Luftansa flight LH 568.
The fourth case is a Nigerian male, who arrived on March 13 from Frankfurt via Lufthansa Flight no LH568.
The commissioner said: “What we have is a combination of imported cases and local transmission.”
Abayomi added that the ministry is currently tracking over 1,300 people in relation to the pandemic which has claimed numerous lives in several countries and plagued the world economy.
The new cases are emerging as the state government announced the closure of all public and private schools from Monday, 23rd March 2020, as part of preventive measures against the spread of the pandemic.
According to a statement released by the Commissioner of Education, Folashade Adefisayo, the move became necessary to prevent school children and their teachers from being more vulnerable to the killer virus.
As part of the statement, the commissioner said: “the Incident Command Centre, headed by the Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu would continue to trace all contacts of the identified cases and encourage anyone who has information about suspected cases to report to the nearest hospital or call the emergency telephone numbers 08023169485, 08033565529, 08052817243 and 08023401214.”
