Akin Abayomi, the Commissioner for Health in Lagos State said many Nigerians who tested positive for COVID-19 have taken to their heels before they are administered treatment.
Abayomi who disclosed this at the Secretariat on Friday said the runners are the reasons the isolation centres still have unoccupied beds despite having the highest cases of COVID-19 in the country.
“There is also a situation that we experience when we test people, sometimes they find it difficult to find them. The ambulances will go into the community, people will flee their homes, and they make it difficult for us to find them,” he said.
The Commissioner also asserted that health workers undergo a lot of stress because some patients who test positive run away before being admitted or shut their doors.
Abayomi said the state does not have enough time to start chasing runaway around the community, adding that some people are afraid to come to Isolation centres.
“If you have tested positive, we expect you to cooperate with us and make yourself available so that you can be admitted and accessed.
“Our isolation facilities are really comfortable, it is not like the Ebola days, we have made a lot of improvements.
“Members of the executive and senior people in government have been admitted into those facilities.
If I test positive, I will go to one of those facilities,” Mr Abayomi said.
