*Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu (right) with his Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi inspecting some COVID-19 equipment
As a way of having proper grasp of the rampaging Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Lagos State, which is no doubt Nigeria’s epicentre, the state authorities has reiterated the fact that it is illegal for private hospitals in the state to attend to COVID-19 positive patients without the state authorization. The state has also accredited three private hospitals to manage COVID-19 cases.
The State’s Ministry of Health quoted the Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, who said at a news briefing that one of the accredited private hospitals is already admitting patients, adding that the other two will soon start admission and management of patients. He said, “They have passed the biosecurity compliance test. They have made modifications to their hospitals so that their staff and other patients are not put in danger or exposed to a higher risk of contracting COVID-19.
“Those private hospitals have passed the test and we are just in the process of issuing them with accreditation certificate so that they can start managing COVID-19 patients in the private sector. However, even if they are managing COVID-19 in the private sector, it still comes under the supervision of the Lagos State Government Ministry of Health.
“Also, information about every patient managed by the hospitals must be made available to us so that we can record it in our database. COVID-19 remains a public crisis and all public crises are managed and supervised by the Lagos state government and by extension the federal government of Nigeria,” Abayomi said, but refused to mention the names of the private hospitals.
