Nigeria’s virus epicentre considers home treatment
Nigeria’s virus epicentre considers home treatment as spaces short
Lagos State, which has remained the COVID-19 epicntre since Fenruary has said it will begin home-based treatment of pateints of the virus.
Already, the State which has recorded 5663 cases out of 11844 cases in the country has said that bed spaces would be an issue if the current trend of infections contoues in the South-Western state of the country.
Home-based treatment is planned for mild and asymptomatic cases of COVID-19, while severe cases will be managed at the isolation centres.
Lagos Health Commissioner, Akin Abayomi said this on Friday during a press briefing at the State Secretariat.
He also warned that private health facilities should not manage COVID-19 cases without the approval of the state government as this is illegal.
The commissioner said home-based care is necessitated by the increasing number of positive cases in the community which is a result of the increase in testing capacity.
He added that with the increasing number of positive cases, the possibility of running short of bed spaces in isolation facilities cannot be ruled out making it imperative to opt for home-based care for people who have mild symptoms or are asymptomatic to the infection.
‘’We are going to define who can be managed at home and who can be managed in an isolation facility. It is a bit of a simple decision. If you are asymptomatic you qualify to be managed at home simply because most people in that category will naturally get well without any medical intervention. After all if you are not feeling any symptom you may not know you have COVID19, nothing happens to you and you may clear the virus after seven to 10 days.
“The people we want to pay more attention to are the moderate to severe ones because they are not suitable for home-based care,” he said.
Mr Abayomi said the process will be duly monitored, noting that mild and asymptotic patients “may turn moderate or severe and will require intensive management.”
He added that patients receiving home-based care will be provided with a COVID-19 pack with which they can monitor their body temperature, measure their oxygen level and be given certain vitamins and pain-relieving drugs to manage themselves.
‘’When we manage you at home we are going to monitor you. We will call you by phone, people will come and visit you, your family members can call us. With our developed EkoTelemed, we can have a consultation with you in your house without us coming. We are going to give you COVID-19 pack where you can measure your temperature, oxygen level, give you certain vitamins and pain killers so that you can have a comfortable time while you are isolating at home,’’ he said.
A breakdown of the 11,884 confirmed cases shows that Lagos State has so far reported 5, 663 cases, followed by Kano – 985, FCT – 862, Katsina – 385, Edo – 364, Oyo – 334, Kaduna – 335, Borno – 322, Ogun – 329, Jigawa – 282, Rivers – 308, Bauchi – 281, Gombe – 184, Sokoto – 115, Kwara – 127, Plateau – 113, Delta – 116, Nasarawa – 90, Zamfara – 76, Ebonyi – 80, Yobe – 52, Osun 49, Akwa Ibom – 45, Adamawa – 42, Niger – 41, Imo – 47, Kebbi – 33, Ondo – 38, Ekiti – 25, Enugu – 30, Bayelsa – 30 Taraba – 18, Abia–15, Benue – 13, Anambra – 12, and Kogi – 3.