In a recent interview on Channels TV’s Sunrise Saturday, Lagos state’s Commissioner for Health, Prof Akin Abayomi, revealed that the state is currently experiencing community spread of Coronavirus and cautioned residents against stigmatizing patients.
Abayomi emphasized the need for informed decision-making and appropriate support for the people, stating, “We are in the stage of community spread and we are trying to manage it. We are doing everything possible to ensure that Lagosians are informed, Lagosians are able to take the appropriate amount of risk based on their circumstances and that we are taking the right kind of support for the people.”
Concerning the impact of defying lockdown orders, he added, “I think every segment of Lagos requires a slightly different strategy. It can’t be on cap fits all. Someone in Victoria Island doesn’t have the same priorities as someone in Makoko and there is a whole range in between. I think what Mr. Governor is doing is that he is trying to size up all the respective situations. He gets a situation analysis every day, he debates with the cabinet, data is very critical, we supply data on a daily basis and with that data, it helps you to change your policies and the policies are changing every 24 hours based on what we are finding and based on hot spots.”
Furthermore, Abayomi stated that the Lagos government is taking proactive measures to combat the pandemic, acknowledging the unique demographic profiles of the state. He said, “Nigeria’s figures are way better than any other figures we’ve seen around the world, for one, because at least in the epicentre in Lagos, we’ve been proactive. We knew something like this was going to happen since 2015 and the WHO had been telling us that it was going to happen. Various think tanks around the world have been predicting it. We call these kind of germs, pathogens of high consequence. What that means is that if a pathogen like that gets into your community, there are high consequences not only for your wellbeing but to your economy and security. The way the world is going now, we are seeing an increase in the number of these zoonotic events…what we call the ability of a dangerous pathogen to jump from the animal kingdom, to the human kingdom and that’s because we’ve destroyed our environment and the opportunity for these kinds of events is going to keep increasing. We know that in Lagos and we know that there are peculiar demographic profiles in Lagos and we know that to be successful in Lagos, you have to be on the offensive because we have a very unusual demographic profile and we have a relatively weak health infrastructure. You don’t recognize your weakness and wait for your enemy to come. You go out and attack”.