Ololade Adeyanju/
Lagos State Health Commissioner, Prof Akin Abayomi, says a lot of persons infected with COVID-19 may not have any symptoms but can be transmitting the virus daily.
He disclosed this yesterday while appearing on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme.
He said this is responsible for the current stage of community transmission of the disease being experienced in the state.
His words, “We’ve moved from the imported stage to the community transmission stage and the virus is now jumping around and it is a highly contagious virus; it spreads very easily.
“The difference between flu and coronavirus is that if you catch the flu, you will know you have flu. You’ll be terribly unwell, there will be no doubt that you are sick.
“Most people don’t actually know they have coronavirus. About sixty to seventy percent of people have a very mild illness it might just feel as if you had a rough day but you’re secreting the virus and therefore you’re transmitting it.
“And therefore a moderate proportion of people have symptoms and a smaller proportion will have a severe and critical illness. You could have coronavirus and be jogging. That’s mild it could be.”
Also speaking on the effort being made to minimise the socio-economic impact of the lockdown on the people, he said the government is working on policies suitable for different strata and parts of the society.
“Every segment of Lagos requires a slightly different strategy. It can’t be the same cap fits all. Someone in Victoria Island doesn’t have the same priority as someone in Makoko for example. What Mr Governor is trying to do is to size up all the respective situations. He gets his situation analysis every day. He debates with his cabinet.
“Livelihood is the priority and COVID-19 is just a threat to livelihood. There are many other threats to livelihood. And so in life, you balance those threats. And that other threat may be hunger or other kinds of sicknesses.
“Lockdown is a component of social distancing and there are many factors to social distancing. What we are trying to do is to reduce the opportunity for the virus to travel from one person to another.
“If seventy percent of Lagosians are in the informal sector, they have no safety net, they live from day-to-day. What they earn is what they eat, it’s not like a higher social-economic segment that has reserves.
“It is important that you allow your imaginations to infiltrate this segment of society and make realistic decisions that don’t disconnect you from these people. You could have a double assault in both ways if you make the wrong kind of decisions,” Abayomi said.
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