The Lagos state government has approved and licensed seven private laboratories to carryout testing in its efforts to enhance COVID-19 sample testing in the state.
The laboratories include: SynLab; 54Gene; Medbury Medical Services; Biologix Medical Services; Total Medical Services; 02 Medical Services; and Clina Lancent Laboratories.
The selected laboratories are meant to start testing COVID-19 cases within the next few days.
The Commissioner for Health, Akin Abayomi, disclosed this in an update on the state’s COVID-19 situation, Friday after going through a rigorous accreditation process.
He noted that as the state continues to open up various aspects of its economy, it is imperative that COVID-19 tests be widely available to the public.
“The state took the strategic decision to include private laboratories in its testing of COVID-19 in a bid to ramp up its capacity.
With 9,497 confirmed cases confirmed in the state, and 1,470 treated and discharged at the isolation centres, the minister stated that 128 patients or 1.3 per cent of patients who tested positive for COVID-19 in Lagos died of the virus.
According to Abayomi, three to five per cent of Lagos residents infected with COVID-19 had an extremely severe to critical form of the virus.
“The risk of dying in that percentage of patients with severe symptoms is extremely high.”
While addressing the state, Abayomi said, “Two, three or four per cent might seem like a small percentage, but even one per cent of 25 million people is too much. That is about 250,000 Lagosians.”
He decried, “We are not prepared to lose 250,000 Lagosians to the virus, and certainly will not like to contemplate that number.”
