Lagos commissioner says government will soon commence search for COVID-19 patients in communities

The Lagos state commissioner for health, Akin Abayomi, says the state government will soon commence local search for COVID-19 patients around various communities in the state.

The commissioner broke the news during a joint ministerial press briefing on COVID-19 intervention in Ikeja, the state capital, on Thursday.

He said the exercise tagged “Community Active Case Search” will run for a period of two weeks in the first instance.

TheCable reports that Abayomi said officials enforcing the activity will carry identification tags and a letter of introduction from the state government.

He called for the cooperation of residents to ensure the success of the exercise.

“In the coming days, some of our health workers will be moving around in pairs to administer an electronic questionnaire at homes and healthcare facilities to make inquiries about symptoms of cough, cold and fever,” he said.

“This is in a bid to intensify our search for possible cases of COVID-19 in different communities across the state.

“I implore you to give them your maximum support by providing accurate information that would help in containing this pandemic quickly.”

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has confirmed 288 cases of the disease in the country out of which 158 are in Lagos.