Lagos Discharges Another COVID-19 Patient

Matilda Omonaiye/

Lagos State government has discharged another coronavirus patient receiving treatment at the Infectious Disease Hospital in Yaba.

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, disclosed this at a press briefing this evening.

The governor also expressed optimism that more patients would be discharged soon.

While answering questions during the briefing, Sanwo-Olu disclosed that no fewer than 400 intracity commuter buses have been impounded by security operatives for flouting the ongoing 14-day lockdown directive of the Federal Government.

The governor also announced more palliative measures for vulnerable residents who might be affected by the 24 hours lockdown.

According to Sanwo-Olu, medical bills incurred by patients admitted into public secondary and tertiary healthcare facilities for the duration of the lockdown will be offset by the Lagos State government.

He said the palliative measure will cover the medical expenses of pregnant women and other categories of patients in emergency, casualty cases, laboratory testing and surgeries as well as the cost of any medication bought at the state-owned secondary and tertiary healthcare facilities during the period of lockdown.

He asserted that the decision was taken to ameliorate the difficulty encountered by patients whose regular business has been affected by the restriction order imposed to curtail the spread of COVID-19.

While noting that measures have been put in place to prevent compromise of the scheme, Sanwo-Olu envisaged that the palliative measures will impact positively on beneficiaries of the initiative across public health institutions in Lagos State.

“The first category are patients in emergency, casualty cases, including registration, laboratory tests, surgeries, and drugs. Those in the second category are maternity cases. We will bear the full cost of pregnant women on normal delivery and Cesarean sections in our hospital in this period of lock down,” he stated.

“What this new scheme means is that, at this time, patients with the listed medical conditions will need not pay to access treatment and care in all our 27 General Hospitals across the State,” Sanwo-Olu explained.

He revealed that review of the process for distribution of the food stimulus package is ongoing, saying that feedback indicated that the initiative is impacting positively on the lives of beneficiaries despite initial hiccups.

Appealing to residents for more patience, Sanwo-Olu said the restriction order has facilitated quicker movement by officials of the Ministry of Health and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in tracing contacts of patients already being treated at the Infectious Diseases Hospital, Yaba.

“The restrictions have started paying off; the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control has told us that they have been able to take advantage of the absence of traffic on our roads to make appreciable progress in their contact tracing,” the governor said.

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