The Ogun State Government on Friday quarantined 28 people it claimed had physical contact with the Italian diagnosed with the deadly coronavirus.
A factory located in the Ewekoro community in the state, which the unnamed Italian visited, has been shut down with government intensifying effort to locate others who had met with him.
The search is taking place simultaneously in Lagos and Ogun states as part of the strategies aimed at containing the deadly virus.
It was not clear last night how many people had physical contacts with the unnamed Italian between his arrival in Nigeria on Monday night and Thursday when he tested positive to COVID-19.
He is currently in isolation at the bio-security facility in Yaba, Lagos.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has already deployed its rapid response teams in Lagos to deal with the situation.
Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State confirmed the decision to quarantine the 28 people during a press conference in Abeokuta last night.
Government, according to him, was leaving no stone unturned to bring the situation under control.
He advised residents and visitors to be calm.
He said officials of the Federal Ministry of Health were already in the state to assist in ensuring that the situation does not get out of control.
The Federal Government officials will help in upgrading the isolation centre at the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital (OOUTH), Sagamu to Virus Security Centre.
He said efforts were on to get in touch with secondary contacts with the established index case.
The governor advised the public to wash their hands regularly, cover their mouth and nose while sneezing or coughing and to report to the nearest public health centre if they notice any sign of cold, cough and respiratory difficulty.
He warned that the virus is no respecter of any person.
At a separate press conference in Abuja yesterday, Health Minister Osagie Ehanire said that everyone that had contact with the Italian was being tracked by government.
They include the passengers on the same Turkish Airline flight with the Italian and those who had contact with him elsewhere.
The Italian came in from Milan, Italy, which has the highest rate of the infection in Europe.
Ehanire said the relevant authorities are working to find out where he has been to and those he came in contact with since he arrived in Nigeria.
“We have started working to identify all the contacts made by the patient since he entered Nigeria, even those with him on the aircraft,” the minister said.
“We are working to find out where this gentleman was, where he sat, those who sat around him and set up a monitoring team for all the passengers and crew members of that flight in order to get information and monitor their state of health.
“We will advise anyone who has any symptoms to report and be monitored and be checked.”
The minister said the Italian showed no symptom of Coronavirus when he arrived the Murtala Muhammed Airport only for him to fall sick a day or two later.
“He walked through the screening with no symptoms,” Ehanire said.
He added: “By the time he got to his house, I think a day or two after, he started to feel unwell and, wisely enough, went to a hospital and there the doctors examined him.
“So, it is not that it is a failure of screening. The screening went very well. The information I have this very morning is that he is stable, so all people will not be equally severe.”
He explained why Nigeria does not quarantine passengers arriving from abroad.
“WHO advises that there is no need to put every single traveller into quarantine,” he said.
“There are some other countries who choose to do it differently, but we followed the guideline of WHO which states that you screen all persons who are entering your country and check their travel history.
“If they are coming from a country with a high record of coronavirus, invite them for further questioning, give them a phone number to call you and get their phone number.
“And advise them in the interest of their own family and friends to stay in self isolation for 14 days and report any symptoms immediately. We also call you to find out how you are.”
He added that besides the Italian not showing “very serious” symptoms, “as far as statistics are concerned, up to 97 per cent of people who are known to have coronavirus do recover.”
NCDC deploys rapid response teams in Lagos to tackle virus
The Director General, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, announced yesterday the deployment in Lagos of the NCDC rapid response teams to deal with the unfolding development.
Ihekweazu said health facilities must remain on high alert.
He said Nigerians could count on government for their safety against COVID-19.
His words: “The NDCD has escalated the multi-sectoral coronavirus preparedness group to an Emergency Operations Centre (EOC), at level II to lead response activities.
“The NCDC will continue to keep Nigerians informed. It is important for them to be focused on facts and not fear.
“Nigerians should protect themselves by staying calm, drink lots of water.”
Like Governor Abiodun, Ihekweazu urged Nigerians to wash their hands as many times as possible, avoid touching their eyes, nose and mouth and practice respiratory hygiene.
Besides, he said anyone who has a fever, cough or difficulty in breathing should see a doctor immediately.
He pledged government’s readiness to fight coronavirus with all the resources at its disposal.
Sanwo-Olu: no cause for alarm
Also speaking at a press conference in Lagos, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu said a number of persons who had physical contact with the patient before he was diagnosed with the virus were being traced.
Others are being examined for possible symptoms, he added.
Sanwo-Olu said there should be no cause for panic among Nigerians over the reported COVID-19 incident, stressing that measures had been put in place by the state and federal governments to contain the spread of the virus across the country.
He said the two bio-security facilities set up in the state have what it takes to contain the virus.
He said: “At 10pm on Thursday, I got a call from the Commissioner of Health, who reported possible identification of patient with Coronavirus in Ogun State.
“Immediately, we triggered all levels of bio-security responses and containment facilities.
“After series of laboratory examination, the patient was confirmed to have tested positive to the virus in early hours of today (Friday), and we immediately alerted the federal authorities, including the President and everybody who needs to be aware.
“We are in constant touch with the company where the patient was engaged. The management and personnel of the company have been cooperative.
“Health workers and emergency officials are on the field to track all persons that had physical contacts and interaction with the patient.
“Our bio-security facilities have been fortified to continue any form of test and contain any other potential case.
“We are in constant touch with the Federal Ministry of Health to harmonise our response to the incident.
“For us in Lagos, we are doing anything that needs to be done. The patient is stable and every health intervention required is currently being given to him.”
On how the patient scaled through health screening at the Lagos airport without being detected, Sanwo-Olu said investigation showed the virus did not manifest in the patient at the time he passed through the airport.
The incident, he said, prompted the government to immediately trigger advanced end-to-end screening for passengers flying into Nigeria, especially from high-risk countries.
The governor said there would not be prohibition of public gatherings and regular activities in Lagos despite the diagnosed case of COVID-19, pointing out that such measure may give rise to needless panic among the general public.
He said the condition of the patient was not “highly contagious” at the moment, adding that the state would only ban outdoor gatherings in the case of escalation in person-to-person transmission of the virus.
He said: “It is only when there is a high level of escalation that the public can be panicky, and this is when we realise that it is getting to person-to-person transmission.
“As we have said, this isolated case has been contained right from the hospital where he was first admitted and the guest house he slept after his arrival in Nigeria.
“It is when there is a person-to-person infection that we can trigger another level of isolation and curtail public events where large number of people can gather.
“I don’t think we have gotten to that level yet.”
Sanwo-Olu also cleared the air on why the patient was transferred to Lagos after the incident was reported in Ogun State, saying the Federal Government only established testing centres to prevent coronavirus in states that have international airports.
Lagos, the Governor said, is the only state in the Southwest that has testing centres.
He said the State was also considered based on its sophisticated bio-security facilities, which were established during the outbreak of Ebola virus.
The Lagos Stae Commissioner for Health, Akin Abayomi, who was with the governor, explained how the diagnosis was carried out, following the patient’s complaint of fever and body pain.
He said the patient started to show signs of illness on Wednesday afternoon, after which he was presented at the Ogun State-based firm’s hospital where investigation began.
He said: “Investigation began at the hospital after the patient gave history of his trip to Nigeria.
“The medical personnel at the company’s hospital kept the patient in isolation overnight and contacted us at the bio-security in Lagos for assistance.
“We immediately asked them to transfer the case to Lagos. The patient was brought to our high-containment in Yaba on Thursday morning.
“Immediately the patient arrived, he was put in proper isolation and appropriate tests were conducted on him. Within hours, we received signals that the laboratory tests were showing signs of positivity. At that point, we informed the Federal Minister of Health and Governor Sanwo-Olu, who is the Chief Incident Commander in Lagos.”
The Health Commissioner said the patient was responding well under a supportive therapy, saying efforts were on to identify all persons that had physical contact with the patient to break the cycle of transmission.
He disclosed that the State remained prepared to contain potential spread of the virus, observing that Lagos had wrapped up the capacity of its containment facility to 80-bed as a result of the emergency funds released by the governor.
Prof. Abayomi said more capabilities were being put in place by the state to deal with increase number of cases.
He said aggressive public awareness campaign was going on to sensitise residents on hygiene and activities that can prevent the spread of virus.
Shedding more light yesterday on how the Italian got into Nigeria, Lagos State Deputy Governor, Obafemi Hamzat, said: “He came in from Italy in Milan.
“He has a consultancy job for a company in Ogun state. So he landed on the 26th and went to Ewekoro and then he fell ill.
“The doctors were smart enough to say this is somebody that is just coming in from Italy and fell ill suddenly. So we sent an ambulance there with the pep jackets and they brought him in for a diagnosis.
“The good thing is that he was brought in yesterday (Thursday) morning and within four hours, he had been diagnosed so, our diagnosis tools seem to work better than we expected. Normally, it takes eight hours.
“The doctor said that he is going to be fine. The challenge is not for people to have the virus.
“What we are doing now is that he came through one airline so they are trying to track everybody on that flight. He went from Lagos to Ewekoro, who has he met?
“So, those are the people they are tracking to isolate them and then carry out checks.” Hamzat spoke on TVC.
Factory quarantined
The Ogun State Health Commissioner, Tomi Coker said the factory which the Italian visited prior to his diagnosis has been quarantined in accordance with health safety standard.
The Commissioner who abandoned her bed rest to attend to the public health emergency, said: “In the last 12 hours, the first case of the chronic virus has been identified in Nigeria and the individual was visiting Ogun State.
“The individual is of Italian origin and he is a consultant to the Lafarge, Ewekoro factory.”
She explained further that the victim entered Nigeria on Monday at about 9pm and visited Ogun State.
According to her, before arriving in the state, he had made contacts with three people in the night in Lagos State and arrived on Tuesday morning in Ogun State.
She added: “He stayed at a guest house and about 4pm on Wednesday, February 26, he developed a fever.
“The hospital of Lafarge was very sensitive to the case. They responded immediately and contacted Lagos that they had a high suspicion.
“My colleague, Commissioner for Health in Lagos, contacted me very early this morning to tell me the situation of things.
“The epidemiologists in the state being supported by federal and Lagos are trying to get every contact the patient had.
“It means we are going to phone them, get them, get in touch with them and monitor their temperature for two weeks.”
We’ve identified those who had contacts with Italian patient – Larfarge
Cement manufacturers, Lafarge Africa Plc, said yesterday that it had identified the persons who had direct contact with the Italian coronavirus patient during his visit to the company’s factory at Ewekoro, Ogun State.
Spokesperson for the company, Folashade Ambrose-Medebem, said in a statement that Larfarge had “equally initiated isolation, quarantine and disinfection protocol.”
She said: “The Lagos State Government has reported a first case of n-COVID19 (Coronavirus) in Nigeria.
“The individual concerned works for a vendor that provides services to Lafarge Africa Plc in Ogun State.
“As a business, we have immediately identified the persons who had direct contact with the concerned individual. We have equally initiated isolation, quarantine and disinfection protocol.
“We thank the exemplary leadership of the federal ministry of health, Ogun and Lagos State governments for swiftly providing response and testing facilities and we are working in full co-operation with all local authorities.
“Lafarge Africa is also working in close partnership with International SOS, our medical service provider, a leading global health company.
“Health and safety remains a core value at Lafarge Africa and we intend to leverage this strength at this critical time.”