The Lagos State Government (LASG) has set up an Incident Command System (ICS) in its bid to prevent an outbreak of the fast spreading novel Coronavirus in the state.
A press statement issued yesterday by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Gboyega Akosile, said the emergency structure was set up to help with containment in the unlikely event of outbreaks of the virus in Lagos State.
The Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who is also the Incident Officer, explained while launching the ICS that the measure was not to stigmatise citizens of any country but a precautionary one taken in the interest of the people of the state.
Sanwo-Olu noted that relevant health professionals, in conjunction with the Federal Ministry of Health, would be deployed to the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, for a higher level of monitoring.
He assured that the government and Non-Governmental Organisations would continue to escalate communication and create public awareness about the virus.
He said: “What we have started to do is to have what we call a heightened state concern on the Coronavirus. We are not declaring an emergency in any form but creating a heightened state concern.
“Also, the Honourable Commissioner of Health through his ministry will identify relevant health professionals that would, in conjunction with the Federal Ministry of Health, be deployed to the International Airports in Lagos where we would see higher level of monitoring as well as organised level of incidence reporting layout.”
The governor said that the team expected people to be self-quarantined and stressed that the state government would carry out a supervised quarantine where details about immigrants would be taken at the point of entry while the team would do daily follow-ups through phone calls to identified individuals for a period of two weeks.
According to the governor, the command would be in operation for the period of time the risk lasts. He assured that adequate preparation has been carried out to tackle the virus.
He said: “This command will go on until when we believe and we have been given assurance that we have a stable and controlled environment but in the meantime, this exercises are going to be put in place and we are going to start things immediately.
“I also want to mention that we have started providing both human and material logistics required for this exercise.
“All of our major General Hospitals are also being prepared in event of an outpour into any of them. The hospitals in mainland have tents coming up and extensive resources are being put in that particular health facility for them to be on standby in case of any suspected or identified case.”
According to the Lagos State Commissioner of Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, the novel Coronavirus is a new pathogen to the human race and as such, research is still ongoing on how to arrest it.
Abayomi stated that no suspected or confirmed cases of novel Coronavirus has been found in Lagos, warning residents against rumour mongering on public health and safety.
Abayomi further added that the World Health Organisation has declared the Coronavirus a global health concern, saying this would make the state government to scrutinise travellers coming in from mostly affected region.
“We need to really ramp up the human capacity at the airport to be able to scrutinise all travellers coming in from particularly the routes that are coming in from the South East Asian regions.
The Deputy Governor, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat; the Consul General of People’s Republic of China, Chu Moaming and the Secretary to the State Government, Mrs. Folashade Jaji were among the dignitaries present at the event.
