Commissioner: Some persons who flew into Lagos with Italian patient gave us false information

Akin Abayomi, Lagos state commissioner of health, says some of the persons who boarded the same flight with the Italian who tested positive to coronavirus in Nigeria gave false information.

The patient currently at the Infectious Disease Hosptial in the Yaba area of the state came into Nigeria exactly one week ago.

After landing at Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, he checked into a hotel and moved to Ewekoro, Ogun state, the next day.

He was said to have complained of fever before being admitted and subsequently tested for the virus.

Addressing reporters on the efforts to contain the spread of the disease, Abayomi said those who had contacts with the patient are still being traced.

He said the government has intensified its search for all persons that had interaction with the isolated patient.

Abayomi said the incident command centre was still investigating possible transmission of the virus, pointing out that the centre had identified all the local contacts that interacted with the patient.

“There were 159 passengers in the aircraft and six people that came in contact with him at the airport. There are 25 people who came in contact with him at the factory; there were two drivers and an ambulance driver,” Abayomi said.

“We have quarantined those identified so far at our medical facilities and some of them at home. We are calling them twice a day to check if they are okay. If they develop symptoms, we will bring them to our bio-security facility for test.

“We have identified all of these people except some of the people on the aircraft who have either gone back to Europe and other states. Some of them gave us false information on the phone.

“We are still trying to find the remaining passengers on that aircraft every day. Our contact list is over 100 persons and this number is increasing every day.”