Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu said on Thursday that more COVID-19 patients need oxygen in Lagos.
Governor Sanwo-Olu disclosed this after closed doors with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
At the end of the meeting, the governor briefed State House correspondents on his administration’s commitment to addressing the second wave of COVID-19 and the increase in the number of cases of coronavirus infection in Lagos State.
Sanwo-Olu said his government has built about 10 oxygen plants and commissioned about four, and provided other facilities in a public building to meet the respiratory requirements.
He said the second wave seems to be a bit more infectious than the first one, considering the number of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 and the fatality rate around the country, especially in Lagos.
The governor, therefore, urged the citizens to take responsibility and to know and appreciate that COVID-19 is real, therefore they need to obey all the protocols that have been set out for them to obey.
He said: “We have seen, unfortunately, the fatality rate around the country, even in Lagos. One of the things we have realised is that a lot more people require oxygen attention, they need additional breathing aid. So we have started building what we call oxygen tent, oxygen facilities; we are building about 10 of such facilities.
“We have commissioned about four of them and we are also building additional two oxygen plants in the state so that we can meet the respiratory requirements. We understand the virus more than how we did eight to 10 months ago, so we know what treatment should be. We are better positioned for that.
“We are also doing a lot more testing in Lagos than we were doing five to six months ago: we are doing almost 2,500 to 3,000 tests every day, so we are watching the rate of positivity that we have, which is also high. It has moved from the usual 10 to 12 per cent and we are now seeing a positivity rate of about 25 and sometimes 30 per cent. That is actually very disturbing.”
