Here's Sanwo-Olu's latest Coronavirus update

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos has disclosed that the Italian man diagnosed of Coronavirus in the state is improving.

During a meeting with Chairmen of Local Government Councils, Local Council Development Areas, Community Development Associations and All Progressives Congress (APC) stalwarts on how to effectively prevent the spread of the virus, Sanwo-Olu said there is no reason to panic as the patient is responding well to treatment.

While maintaining that his administration will create open lines of communication with the public on the progress being made in containing the virus, the governor said, “We have called for this meeting as part of proactive measures we are taking to prevent the spread of Coronavirus to our local communities. It is no more news that we are managing a case in Lagos, but the situation does not call for panic."

An illustrative photo of health officials screening for coronavirus at Kotoka Airport in Ghana. [AFP] Pulse Nigeria

He continued, “We don’t want to record any loss of life to this virus. My administration places premium value on human life, which is the reason we have upgraded facilities at our bio-security centre and Infectious Disease Hospital.

“But, we believe we will achieve better results in this effort if people at the grassroots are properly sensitised on how to protect their communities from the virus and other contagious diseases.

“Government is doing its best to stop coronavirus, but government cannot do it alone. It requires collective responsibility of everybody living in Lagos to stop the virus."

Sanwo-Olu lamented that the Lagos government is yet to track the 158 passengers aboard the Turkish airliner that flew in the Italian who is Nigeria’s index case of the virus.

According to the governor, while some of the passengers had traveled to other states in Nigeria, others had gone back to Europe.

Sanwo-Olu added, “There were 25 people who came in contact with him at the factory(in Ogun State); there were two drivers and an ambulance driver. 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 or traveled to other states.

“Some of them gave us false information on the telephone. 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.”

On a global scale, the number of people infected with the Coronavirus epidemic has gone past 89,000, while the death rate has surpassed 3,000.