…Infected cases has no vaccination record, says Commissioner
Sanwo-Olu warns: We can’t afford another lockdown
As Nigerians harbour apprehension over the third wave of COVID-19, the Lagos State government Thursday said that no fewer than 100 Lagosians are now testing positive to the deadly virus, saying that the number has dramatically risen to the figure in the last five days.
The government also pointed out that of all the positive cases, none of the infected persons had received the vaccination before contacting the virus, urging the residents to get vaccinated on time and dispell unfounded rumours on social media about the vaccines.
Speaking with journalists at the South West Zonal Town Hall meeting on the COVID-19 vaccination, organised by the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19 in conjunction with the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, held in Lagos, the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof Akin Abayomi, who disclosed this, said that that the state’s testing figures are going up slightly, adding that it was also expected that a lot of people are coming back from Europe especially the young children causing the new variant to spread easily as a result of the summer season.
Abayomi added that the figure of the infected people steadily rose from 30 cases daily to between 60 and 80 earlier before it remained at 100, adding that there are evidences that those infected had not received the vaccines.
The commissioner said: “About a week ago we were diagnosing 30 new cases a day, it gradually went up to 60, 80, and it went just above 100 and it has remained above 100 every day for the past four or five days. And we are engaging in aggressive attack of the virus as directed by the Incident Commander, the governor.”
On the vaccination, he said that despite the fact that there is global shortage of the vaccines, the Federal Government is expecting some consignment of millions of vaccines, adding that Lagos would be prioritised because the state had experienced evidence of the third wave of the pandemic, especially with increase in the number of cases in recent days.
On his part, Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who was represented at the event by the Secretary to the State Government, Mrs Folashade Jaji also expressed dismay that the persisting rumours have affected the uptake of the vaccine.
Sanwo-Olu declared that Lagos could not afford another lockdown again due to the imminent COVID-19 third wave which he believed could be prevented.
The Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer of NPHCDA, Dr. Faisal Shuaib, in his address, said that the government has received communication for the delivery of the following vaccine shipments in the coming months; 3,924,000 doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca by the end of July or early August 2021 from the COVAX facility; 4,000,080 doses of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine in August from the COVAX facility donated by the United States government; 3,577,860 doses of Pfizer-Bio-N Tech COVID-19 vaccine in Q3 from the COVAX facility and 29,850,000 doses of Johnson & Johnson (Jassen) COVID-19 vaccine by the end of September, that will arrive in batches from the African Union Commission.
