The Federal Government has raised the alarm over the rising cases of the Delta variant of the COVID-19 in Lagos, Akwa Ibom, Oyo, Rivers, Kano, Plateau, and FCT.
It said Lagos alone accounts for over 50 percent of the number of cases.
The government expressed concern over the spike of the spike of the variant the situation in Lagos, Akwa Ibom, Oyo, Rivers, Kano, Plateau, and FCT as it has made way into these states and accounts for the rising cases in these states and across the nation.
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Chairman, PSC, Boss Mustapha, who raised the alarm yesterday in Abuja at the national briefing of the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) on COVID-19, noted that the PSC has been working on the rising number of COVID-19 cases and proffer ways to stop a huge impact on citizens lives and livelihood.
Mustapha said: “The world has added about 4 million cases and under 100,000 deaths in the last week. All countries in the West African region are beginning to see the 3rd Wave while Nigeria is recording about 500 cases daily in the last seven days.”
He told newsmen that the PSC will publish over 500 travelers who violated the travel protocol and those who evaded quarantine this week.
He said those who had their passports barred for six months will be lifted in the coming days.
He added:“The Comptroller General Immigration will be directed to lift the suspension and to also activate the new sanctions.
“Travellers who did not go for their Day-7 test will restriction placed on their international passports for 6 months while those who evaded quarantine will similarly have restrictions on their international passports for one year,” Mustapha said.
Meanwhile,the Lagos State government has recorded 64,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 infections from February till date, with an average of six deaths daily.
A total of 4,300 confirmed cases of infections were recorded nationally in the month of July according to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu .
He disclosed this on Monday during an update on the third wave of COVID-19,where he said that from the beginning of July, the state “started to experience an increase in the number of daily confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Lagos State, with the positivity rate going from 1.1% at the end of June 2021 to 7% at the end of July 2021.
He said:“As at August 1, 2021, the positivity rate in Lagos is 8.9%. This is an eight-fold increase over the recorded figure a month ago, and it should rightly alarm all of us. This has resulted in 4,300 confirmed cases in July alone and 352 admissions into our isolation facilities.From the beginning of the outbreak in February 2020 to date, Lagos State has recorded a total of 64,032 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Of this number, 56,336 have recovered in community, 2,755 are currently being managed actively in community. Over the course of managing the COVID-19 pandemic, about 5,029 patients have been admitted into our various COVID-19 care centres in Lagos.
“We have, sadly, recorded 390 fatalities in Lagos State, 30 of which have taken place in this current 3rd wave of the pandemic. Essentially, we have recorded on average six deaths per day since last week.Given the huge population of our state and the rising numbers of confirmed cases during the first and second waves of the pandemic, it became necessary for us to deploy telemedicine in managing positive patients.In this vein, we launched a home-based programme, driven by our EKOTELEMED call center service.”
Sanwo-Olu said that the home-based programme works by delivering care packs to symptomatic Covid-19 patients – those who do not require admission in a treatment facility – in the comfort of their homes, and making specialist care available over the phone.
He spoke on vaccine distribution and access strategy, saying that following the receipt of the first installment of the AstraZeneca vaccine from the Federal Government, Lagos administered a total of 404,414 first doses and 243,374 second doses of the vaccine to residents.
He added:“As of today, the percentage of residents of Lagos that have received two doses of the vaccine stands at 1%. This is quite low, especially considering that we are now confronted by a third wave, and we are exploring all avenues possible to ramp up access to vaccination so as to reach our herd immunity target of administering vaccines to at least 60% of the population of Lagos State.”
602700cookie-checkCOVID-19: Beware Of Delta Variant In Lagos, FCT, Oyo, Others-FG
