\nThe Lagos State Government says it has conducted about 16, 000 COVID-19 tests at a cost of N40, 000 to N50, 000 per test.<\/p>\n

Prof. Akin Abayomi, the state Commissioner for Health, made this known at the Lagos COVID-19 update on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Abayomi said that there were plans to ramp up testing capacity to about one thousand tests on a daily basis.<\/p>\n

He said that Lagos had conducted the highest number of COVID-19 tests in Nigeria, with four testing laboratories, and planned to increase the testing sites in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

According to him, as the state ramps up its testing capacity, there will be need to subside the cost of the test, either through insurance or donor funds.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor now, the Lagos State Government is providing COVID-19 tests free of charge,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The commissioner said that the state would validate rapid test kits to enhance case detection, adding that the process had commenced and manufacturers of the tests kits identified.<\/p>\n

According to him, the state is about to roll out Hydroxychloroquine trial.<\/p>\n

He added that the state was also participating in a World Health Organisation (WHO)\u2019s solidarity trial of the drug in one of its isolation centres.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn about a month, we should start getting results from the Lagos trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen, we can decide whether Chloroquine can act as a preventive or curative purpose, and how effective it will be in reducing the severity of the disease,\u201d the commissioner said.<\/p>\n

Abayomi noted that Lagos was in the process of regularising home isolation and treatment for some COVID-19 patients, especially those with mild symptoms of the infection.<\/p>\n

The commissioner said that incorporating home isolation was due to increase in the numbers of people avoiding isolation centres and practicing self-treatment at various places.<\/p>\n

He maintained that contrary to what was obtainable in other countries; most patients that were infected with COVID-19 in Lagos were expected to make full recovery.<\/p>\n

Abayomi cautioned the public against stigmatising people infected with the virus, saying, \u201cit is not a crime or death sentence\u201d.<\/p>\n

According to him, the Traditional Medicine Board is working on home remedies that could be taken to boost the immune system.<\/p>\n

He added that the state government had the virus under control and evolving various strategies to reduce its impact on the citizens.<\/p>\n

Commenting, Dr Ayoola Aina, the Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Primary Healthcare Board, said that the board was actively pursuing community engagement as parts of response to control the spread of COVID-19.<\/p>\n

Aina said that as the state had incorporated primary healthcare centres in his COVID-19 plan, the board was utilising attendance appointments to reduce crowd and derisk the PHCs as infection prevention control.<\/p>\n

The permanent secretary said that the state was still conducting its routine immunisation and family planning programme at PHCs to reduce morbidity and mortality.<\/p>\n

Also, Dr Oreoluwa Finnih, a Senior Special Assistant to the Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Health, advised the citizens to consume a lot of fruits and vegetables to boost their immune system.<\/p>\n

Finnih added that incorporating ginger, garlic and turmeric in moderate portions would help nutrition and the immune system, while advising controlled exposure to sunshine for Vit-D.<\/p>\n

Commenting, Mr Gbenga Omotoso, the state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, said that the state was introducing various strategies to ease the post COVID-19 transition.<\/p>\n

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Lagos is the epicentre of Nigeria\u2019s COVID-19 cases with 2, 970 confirmed cases.<\/p>\n

Of this, 2,261 are active cases, 649 discharged, two evacuated from Nigeria, 16 transferred to Ogun and Ondo, while 42 deaths were recorded. (NAN)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Lagos State Government says it has conducted about 16, 000 COVID-19 tests at a cost of N40, 000 to N50, 000 per test. Prof. Akin Abayomi, the state Commissioner for Health, made this known at the Lagos COVID-19 update on Thursday. Abayomi said that there were plans to ramp up testing capacity to about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64718,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,23,3],"tags":[4908,359],"class_list":["post-64717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-smartlagos","category-health","category-news","tag-covid-19-test","tag-lagos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metronews.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metronews.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metronews.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metronews.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metronews.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64717"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.metronews.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64719,"href":"https:\/\/www.metronews.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64717\/revisions\/64719"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metronews.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metronews.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metronews.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metronews.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}