COVID-19: Government running tests on Nigerian who returned from France

A Nigerian man, who went to France for seven days and returned to Nigeria with headache, has been held at a separate isolation ward as he is being tested for COVID-19. In a chat with the media on Thursday, the Lagos State Commissioner for health, Prof Akin Abayomi, said the man, who returned to Nigeria […]

A Nigerian man, who went to France for seven days and returned to Nigeria with headache, has been held at a separate isolation ward as he is being tested for COVID-19.

In a chat with the media on Thursday, the Lagos State Commissioner for health, Prof Akin Abayomi, said the man, who returned to Nigeria three days ago, has no fever and the tests to confirm is health status were ongoing.

He hinted that the result will be made public to allay fears.

Abayomi said: “He is in his own isolation room called holding bay. He does not come in contact with the COVID-19 Italian man. If he test positive, he will commence treatment and if negative, he will be allowed to go home.

“We do not mix different cases in one ward. We will not put a confirmed COVID-19 patient with someone who we are running tests on just as we won’t allow a Lassa fever patient to be in the same isolation ward with a covid-19 patient.”

The Commissioner explained that though the Nigerian could possibly have a common cold but covid-19 tests were done on him as he had been to a country where there is an active person-to-person transmission.

He added that the patient was referred to the State government by a private hospital.

Regarding the Italian, who tested positive to COVID-19 earlier, he said: “The Italian is in better spirit and he requires psycho-social support. He is getting depressed because he is alone in the isolation ward. But, he is in touch with his family and friends.

“The virus in his body is going down. If that continues, he will be better. We will run another test on him because once we are sure he is negative, he has to return to Italy.”

The Commissioner also revealed that the Government was still searching for two people at the moment.

He said, out of the 149 persons in the same airplane with the Italian, 84 are based in Lagos and only two are not reachable at the moment.

“If I can’t find them, I will put out their names so they can be contacted. As for those we have contacted so far, none has tested positive and if we see any sign, we will put them in isolation.”