COVID-19 cases may explode in Lagos soon, says Commissioner

The Commissioner for Health in Lagos, Dr. Akin Abayomi, has warned that the COVID-19 cases in the state may explode to 120,000 between July and August if the current trend persist.

While addressing a press conference on Friday in Lagos, Dr. Abayomi projected that with the current trend of COVID-19 cases, Lagos is expected to reach its peak during that period.

He said the projection is based on the government’s model, and added that a hydro-chloroquine trial is likely to start soon.

“Just a month ago, on April 7, we saw 10 cases per day. Two weeks later it was 32, then 70 cases. We are now seeing above 100 cases per day. This shows our graph is moving in a gentle incline upwards,” he said.

“We definitely have not reached the peak of our outbreak. We suspect that the peak will happen sometime in July or August and so we are preparing for the oncoming; we are increasing our capacity and strategies to deal with this situation.”

As of Friday, the state had recorded a total of 1,491 cases, but Abayomi said if not for the strategies implemented by the government, Lagos would have recorded 6,000 cases.

He added that there is a gradual increase in the number of positive cases across local government areas in the state.

As part of efforts to contain the spread of the virus, the state government has issued guidelines for residents, which include regular washing of hands, use of sanitisers, physical distancing and compulsory use of face masks in public places.