July 11, (THEWILL) – Lagos State’s Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu says the COVID-19 third wave has hit the state, necessitating that frontier personnel be immediately placed on a Red-Alert mode.
The Governor in an update on the state’s battle against the COVID-19 pandemic on Sunday, disclosed that from the beginning of July, there has been a steep increase in the number of daily confirmed cases, with the test positivity rate going from 1.1 percent at the end of June 2021 to its current rate of 6.6 percent as at 8th of July 2021.
The statement read in part: “Starting around the end of March 2021, the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Lagos State began to wind down, and we began to enjoy some reprieve from the worst effects of the virus. This allowed us to further open-up the economy to allow the start of the journey towards full normalcy in our lives and the pursuit of livelihoods, after what has been a very difficult year.”
“Regrettably, in spite of the hard work and dedicated efforts towards sustaining the return to normalcy, over the last three months, we are now finding ourselves at what appears to be the start of a potential 3rd wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, in Lagos State. From the beginning of July, we started to experience a steep increase in the number of daily confirmed cases, with the test positivity rate going from 1.1 percent at the end of June 2021 to its current rate of 6.6 percent as at 8th of July 2021.”
“The rapid increase within a week gives great cause for concern. Also, within the last two weeks, the occupancy rate at our 2 isolation centres increased from an average of 1 percent to 6 percent. This is the new and disturbing reality that now confronts us.”
The Governor pointed out that, “Lagos State had recorded a total of 60,202 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Of this number, 55,135 have recovered in-community and 770 are currently being managed actively in community.
“Over the course of managing the COVID-19 pandemic, about 4,382 patients have been admitted into our various COVID-19 care centres in Lagos: with 357 registered fatalities. 3 In all we have tested 563,679 samples in Lagos State since the pandemic started. Today we have 30 accredited testing centres: 26 private and 4 public health laboratories in the State, a significant improvement in capacity over the course of the past year.”
He added that government officials are focusing on increasing the distribution of vaccines to help reduce the number of cases.
Sanwo-Olu explained: “The Lagos State Health Facility Monitoring and Accreditation Agency (HEFAMAA) is providing monitoring and surveillance and has been mandated to apply heavy fines and other punitive measures on all facilities found to be in violation of this. Lagosians should desist from patronizing non-accredited COVID-19 treatment centres, and proprietors should also ensure that all suspected and confirmed cases are referred appropriately.
“Vaccine Distribution and Access One of the major tenets of our mitigation strategy against the 3rd wave is our vaccination campaign, similar to other parts of the world. It has been observed by various credible studies that those that have received their 4 vaccines have demonstrated significant resistance to the effects of the virus, with fewer associated complications and deaths.
“As of today, however, the percentage of residents of Lagos who have received two (2) doses of the vaccine stands at a mere 1 percent. We recognise that this is not adequate, and given the imminent third wave, and our priority to reduce COVID-19 related deaths, we are exploring all avenues possible to ramp up access to vaccination so as to reach our herd immunity target of at least 60 percent COVID-19 vaccination coverage of the population of Lagos State. We are confident that we will be getting a second batch of vaccines very soon, to kick-start the second phase of vaccinations.”
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