The Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, has said all 179 people in isolation in Ogun and Lagos States, who had contact with the Italian who brought coronavirus to Nigeria, have been released.
Abayomi, at a briefing on Friday, said 179 contacts were traced to the Italian, adding that since they had exceeded the mandatory 14 days isolation, they have been released as none of them developed any symptom of the disease.
He said the index case still remained on admission as he was still secreting the virus.
“The Italian is perfectly well now, we are only keeping him because he still has some secretion of the virus. The test shows that anytime from now, he may be negative. If he is negative, we will conduct another test within 48 hours after and if he is still negative, we will set him free.
“We are close to discharging the index case, we want to be sure he poses no danger to the society anymore,” Abayomi said.
On the Nigerian, who was initially tested positive to coronavirus for being in contact with the index case, the Commissioner said he had now been tested negative twice and have been released.
“His tests initially showed that he was positive to coronavirus twice and now, he has tested negative to the virus twice on two consecutive tests carried out. The remaining contacts in Ogun and Lagos States remain symptom-free and they have exceeded 14 days surveillance, which means that we have been able to interrupt the transmission between the index case and others. The index case and its threat to Nigeria have been eliminated.
“Those isolated in Ogun State have been discharged; in Lagos, we will not follow up with the contacts again because none of them developed symptoms. We are discharging all,” Abayomi said.