COVID-19: Some Nigerian returnees from Ivory Coast positive, 67 quarantined – Lagos

Lagos State Government has said that 67 Nigerian returnees from Ivory Coast would not be allowed to return to their states until they complete their 14-day quarantine in Badagry.

Lagos disclosed that about 10 percent of the 172 Nigerians who returned from Ivory Coast last week tested positive to Coronavirus.

Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, said this at a media briefing on Thursday.

“On Wednesday, we took 67 Nigerians coming from Ivory Coast into our quarantine facility in Badagry where we’re keeping them for 14 days”, NAN quoted him as saying.

“We’ll test them. If they’re positive, we’ll move them into one of our isolation wards in Lagos and if they’re negative, we’ll allow them to continue on their way to Osun State which is where they originated from.
 

“We are also watching movements closely so as not to increase the number of imported cases in the state.”

On management of COVID-19 corpses, Abayomi said that officials from the Ministries of Health and Environment had been trained to specially prepare such bodies before handing them over to their families for burial.

The Commissioner warned that only sealed masks, which cover the entire face and filter air breathing, could protect one from contracting coronavirus.

However, the state government has refuted speculations that Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has relaxed the COVID-19 lockdown.

Commissioner for Information, Gbenga Omotoso, said only President Muhammadu Buhari who initiated the lockdown would decide.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, has confirmed 14 new cases of Coronavirus in the country with 13 in Lagos.