TheCable

Obafemi Hamzat, deputy governor of Lagos state, says the Italian diagnosed of coronavirus in Lagos works in Ewekoro, Ogun state.

This is contrary to the rumour making the round that the patient works at Agip Saipem, an oil engineering company in Banana Island, Lagos.

The Italian was confirmed to have the virus on Friday morning — about two days after he arrived in the country.

He came in from Milan, Italy, the country with the highest rate of the infection in Europe.

This message went viral on social media on Friday: “Agip Saipem in Banana Island, Lagos, is on lock down. That is the office the Italian with the Coronavirus went to when he returned to Nigeria. Folks need to note information as this to take necessary precautions. Healthy and safe wishes to all.”

But speaking on Your View, a programme on Television Continental (TVC), Hamzat said the patient works as a consultant in a company in Ewekoro.

Staff reported for work at Agip Saipem, Banana Island, on Friday… contrary to the WhatsApp broadcast

He said the Italian visited Ewekoro from where doctors first suspected he had the virus when he checked into a hospital.

”This young man came in from Italy, Milan, on the 25th. He has a consultancy job with a company in Ogun state… so he landed on the 26…. went to Abeokuta, well, Ewekoro, and then he fell ill and the doctors were smart enough to say this is someone coming in from Italy that just suddenly took ill,” Hamzat said.

“So we sent an ambulance there with a pep jacket and they brought him in and then he was diagnosed.”

He asked Lagosians to rest assured that the situation is under control.

“The good thing is that he was brought in yesterday morning and within four hours, he had been diagnosed, so our diagnosis tools seem to work better than we expected. Normally, it takes eight hours,” he said.

”He is in our biosecurity lab in Yaba. It is a lab we built that can accommodate 100 for now, but it is only one bed that is occupied today. Hopefully, it won’t spread further. We are ready, we are well equipped and he is getting better. The doctor said that he is going to be fine.

“The challenge is not for people to have the virus; if you don’t know, that’s the challenge.

“What we are doing now is that he came through one airline so we are trying to track everybody on that flight. He went from Lagos to Ewekoro, who has he met? So, those are the people they are tracking to isolate them and then carry out checks.”