According to latest reports, the Ogun state government in southwestern Nigeria has said that the whole facility of Larfarge Africa Plc, a cement factory in Ewekoro, Ogun State has been quarantined following the confirmation of the first case of coronavirus in Nigeria. Ewekoro is about 20 kilometres from Lagos.
The government said the victim, an Italian who is a consultant to Larfarge Africa Plc, had visited the cement factory before he took ill.
The Ogun State Commissioner for Health, Dr Tomi Coker who disclosed this today while addressing journalists in Abeokuta, the state capital, said the victim had developed a fever and was treated at the clinic located in Lafarge facility before he was rushed to Lagos on Wednesday when the case grew worse.
The Commissioner who was flanked by the Special Adviser Public Communication, Remmy Hazzan, Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Kunle Somorin and top officials from the Ministry of Health during the briefing, said a team of epidemiologists have commenced line listing to detect all contacts the victim made during his stay in the state.
The Commissioner hinted that the victim made three contacts before his arrival in Ogun on Tuesday. Coker, however, said it would be premature to put a number to the contacts he made in Ogun “since the case was just confirmed on Friday.”
Coker vowed that every single contact with the victim would be identified.
She said “In the last 12 hours, the first case of COVID – 19 (Coronavirus) has been identified in Nigeria and the individual visited Ogun State. The said individual is from Italy, a consultant to the Lafarge, Ewekoro factory. He arrived in Nigeria on Monday, 24 of February at about 9:00 pm. Before arriving in Ogun State, he had made contact with three people, spent the night in Lagos and arrived on Tuesday morning in Ogun State. He stayed at a guest house and at about 4-5 pm on Wednesday, he developed body ache and fever.
“The staff clinic of Lafarge was very sensitive to the case. They responded speedily and contacted Lagos, they had a high index of suspicion and once they contacted Lagos, the protocol kicked in and the individual was transferred to Lagos in a closed ambulance according to protocol.
“He was transferred to the infectious disease centre in Yaba, Lagos where tests were conducted and a definite confirmation came out earlier this morning hence, the press release nationally and from Lagos.
“However, my colleague, the Commissioner for Health in Lagos contacted me very early this morning to alert us about the situation.
“My message to the people of Ogun State is, there is no cause for concern. The epidemiologists in Ogun State is supported by both Federal and Lagos governments are line listing every contact that this individual has had which means we are going to phone them, get in touch with them, quarantine them and monitor their temperature for two weeks.
