The two cities most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, Lagos and Abuja have started shutting down isolation centres with seven of them now closed.
The National Hospital had discharged its last patient while the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital (UATH), Gwagwalada, which attend to most severe cases, has about four patients as opposed to the average of 30 severe patients it used to have.
The Chief Medical Director, UATH, Prof Bishop Ekele, in an interview, confirmed that the rate of admission had dropped significantly, adding that only four patients remained at the isolation ward and they might soon be discharged.
“We thank God that things (cases) are beginning to drop. The doctors’ strike has no effect on our facility. Usually, it is those that need oxygen that are brought to us. We have just about four patients and hopefully, they might soon be discharged.” Ekele said
Also, the National Hospital, Dr Tayo Haastrup, said the last patient had been discharged last week.
“We have no more (coronavirus) patients in our isolation centre,” Haastrup said on Friday.
“However, we will not be closing it down because that is what we use for epidemics like Lassa fever. We still have the six rooms for such purposes,” he added.
The Chairman, Medical Sub-Committee of the COVID-19 Ministerial Expert Advisory Committee in Abuja, Dr Ejike Oji, said the drop in the infection rate was a positive development.
He, however, said this was not time for complacency.
Oji recalled that late last year, there was a similar drop in the infection rate which caused people to throw caution to the wind. He said this attitude was what led to the second wave. He, therefore, warned that the fight against COVID-19 must be sustained.
“It is true that severe infections have dropped but this is not the time for complacency. If you recall when we witnessed a drop late last year, people threw caution to the wind. What we have learnt about COVID-19 is that the virus mutates. We saw how the second wave came. There could be a third wave if we are not careful.”
Meanwhile, the Minister of State for Health, Dr Olorunnimbe Mamora, said the drop in the rate of infections showed that the strategies adopted by the government were working.
“It shows that our strategies are working. If the rate of infection is dropping, it shows we are doing something right,” the minister said.
The Lagos State Government has reportedly closed down its 554-bed isolation centres following the decline in COVID-19 cases in the state.
Reports said the need to seal the facilities was also spurred by the fact that Nigerians had opted for home treatment than present themselves at COVID-19 test centres.
This was said to have compelled the state government to recall the frontline workers in the affected facilities. While some were consequently decommissioned, some others were redeployed to various infectious disease wards at the Mainland Hospital in Yaba.
Reports confirm that the Infectious Disease Hospital in Yaba which is active, the remaining COVID-19 treatment venues, including the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Agidingbi, Onikan, Gbagada, Indo and Landmark isolation centres have been shut.
The Indo Isolation Centre at Ajao Estate was the last centre to be closed on March 30.
However, fears have been expressed by the Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, Prof Babatunde Salako, that there could be a third wave of the pandemic if people flouted safety protocols, adding that the drop in cases could not be attributed to vaccination.
He said, “It (the drop) just coincided with the period of the vaccination exercise; the low positive cases we are experiencing couldn’t have been a result of that.
“Just as the first wave went up and came down, the second wave is experiencing a similar decline. However, if we are not careful, a third wave will start. It’s natural; when cases drop, people stop observing the non-pharmaceutical interventions but once they see that it’s going up or people are dying, they would keep to it again. This may continue until we are able to vaccinate a significant number of people.”
