The Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Akin Abayomi, said on Friday that many people who tested positive for coronavirus were running away from being taken to isolation centres for treatment.
Mr Abayomi said this was one of the reasons the state still has unoccupied beds at the isolation centres despite recording more cases than its bed-capacity.
He spoke at the state secretariat on Friday when responding to the question on the discrepancy between the occupancy of the isolation centres and the number of active cases in the state.
“There is also a situation that we experience, when we test people, sometimes they find it difficult to find them. The ambulances will go into community, people will flee their homes, and they make it difficult for us to find them.”
Speaking on the stress health workers undergo, Mr Abayomi said some positive patients sometimes shut their doors or they leave their environment to avoid being admitted. He added that the patients do not answer their phones as well.
The commissioner said this is because people are afraid to come to the isolation centres and the ministry has no time to start hunting people around the community.
“If you have tested positive, we expect you to cooperate with us and make yourself available so that you can be admitted and assessed.
“Our isolation facilities are really comfortable, it is not like the Ebola days, we have made a lot of improvements.
“Members of the executive and senior people in government have been admitted into those facilities. If I test positive, I will go to one of those facilities,” Mr Abayomi said.
The commissioner said Lagos residents have nothing to be afraid of as the staff are very professional.
He said the state still has about 307 unoccupied beds out of the 569 total bed spaces available in the state because most patients are yet to be admitted, while most are on the run after testing positive for coronavirus.
Mr Abayomi said the state has 569 bed-capacity and 45 per cent percent overall occupancy, while 307 bed spaces are available. As of Friday, Lagos has 1,037 active cases of coronavirus.
“We have just opened Gbagada Hospital and we are yet to admit most of the patients we want to admit into Gbagada. As soon as we fill Gbadaga up, our occupancy will increase to over 70 or 80 percent.
Below is a breakdown of the isolation centres and bed-capacity in Lagos state as of Friday;
– Gbagada Hospital- 118
– Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) – 60
– Infectious Disease Hospital, Yaba -115
– Onikan Stadium Centre – 100
– Landmark Centre- 70
– Lekki Centre- 45
– Agidingbi Centre – 34
– First Cardiology Hospital – 5 (Critical case).
