The Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, at the press conference, said the state had yet to reach COVID-19 peak despite recording an increasing number of cases recently.

He stated,

“Seeing an increased number of patients does not mean that we are losing control. Lagos State has yet to peak. The point we are making is that the increase in number of cases per day is sustained but it is a gradual process. Had we not put these strategies in place, we would have been seeing a steep rise in the number of cases per day.”

The Commissioner for Information, Mr Gbenga Omotosho, said it was unfortunate that some markets were still not observing social distancing in the state.

He added that the state would this week begin a massive campaign on social distancing to reduce the spread of the disease.

Meanwhile, the Lagos State Government on Sunday, as part of efforts to step up COVID-19 tests, created testing centres in 20 local government areas of the state.

The state government, which released a list of the testing centres, stated that they were in primary health centres and other facilities in the 20 local government areas of the state.

Abayomi, at a press conference, said centres were established to reduce the stress of health workers, who visited several local government areas for sample collection.

According to him, the centres will enable the response team to have a better view of what is going on and be able to diagnosis the virus at the early stage.

He said,

“We have decentralised the locations where you can have yourself submitted for sampling. So what we’ve done is to move sampling stations to the local government areas. And if you feel that you have any of the symptoms associated with COVID-19, you can present yourself to these decentralised sampling stations.

“They are not testing stations, they are sampling stations and if you meet the criteria for testing, you will be able to receive the counsel of the staff and your sample will be taken.

“We are not just testing anybody, there is a criterion for testing. You either must have COVID-19 symptoms to meet the case definition or be in close contact with somebody that has been confirmed with COVID-19. Your samples would be taken and it would then be sent to one of our accredited testing facilities and those facilities will then perform the tests.”