COVID-19: ‘Lagos May Record Up to 39,000 Cases’

The Lagos State Government has expressed fears that the state could register up to 39,000 cases of Covid-19 in the state.

The Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, expressed this fear when informing journalists at the Secretariat, Alausa, Ikeja, on Thursday afternoon.

He said that while it may be the worst case scenario, it can be limited to 13,000 if everyone joins and practices government-directed measures, especially social detachment.

“Our mathematical modeling shows that the worst case scenario is that we can see up to 39,000 cases in Lagos, but if everyone practices a good social distance, the number will be limited to 13,000.

“If we add social distance to active contact tracking, we will be able to bend the curve even further,” he said.

Abayomi, however, said the numbers were small compared to outbreaks worldwide.

“The numbers may seem alarming at the moment, but this is just to encourage the Lagos community to follow the instructions of the incident commander to ensure that we practice social detachment and other preventive measures.

“Looking at the same period of time since the index case was introduced, you can see that the State of Lagos is nowhere near what Spain, Italy and Iran are showing.

“So, in weeks two and three of our index case, we are out of money and in the fourth week, we have 37 cases; while in the same fourth week, Italy, Iran and Spain had more than 20,000 cases.

“So, we are doing something right in the state,” said Abayomi.