By News Desk
Amidst fear of possible spread of coronavirus after the first index case being managed by the Lagos State Government, another Nigerian who returned from France has also been isolated over the novel virus.
Confirming the isolation, Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof Akin Abayomi, hinted that the Nigerian returned from France three days ago and has been quarantined at the Infectious Disease Centre, Yaba.
Abayomi also disclosed that the index case, 44-year-old Italian man, could be released soon after recording improvement in health status.
“He is a Nigerian who went to France, spent seven days in France, returned to Lagos three days ago and presented with headache and some respiratory symptoms. This is because he has been in a country where there is an active person-to-person transmission, it could be common cold and there is a possibility that it could be coronavirus. He has been put in isolation, the test is being run right now, I am expecting the result,” Abayomi said.
He explained that the government decided to isolate him after revealing that he travelled to France, one of the Coronavirus hit countries.
According to him, the test sample had been collected and result of the test would be out tonight to ascertain if he was positive or negative to Coronavirus.
Abayomi, however, said the index case, an Italian was seriously responding to treatment at the isolation centre, as his clinical situation was stable.
He stated that the Italian was in high spirit, but that he required psycho-social support as he was getting depressed for being in isolation alone, adding that the patient was in touch with his family and friends in Italy.
Abayomi, however, said the level of viral load in his body had gone down and that if that continued, in the next few days, he might be discharged if he tested negative to the disease.
The commissioner noted that government would not just release him immediately he tested negative to the disease, but would still keep him and run a second test in few days to ascertained he was completely free of the disease before letting him go back to his country.
On the people who alighted from the Turkish Airline on arrival in Lagos, he said government had been able to trace 13 of the remaining 15 contacts, leaving only two that had not been reached, saying that if at the end of today, they could not be reached, he would release their names to the media declaring them wanted.
