The Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, on Monday, April 6th, 2020, clarified that private hospitals were not permitted to treat COVID-19 patients.

Abayomi spoke in Alausa, Ikeja, while reacting to the incident of a COVID-19 patient who died at a private hospital in Lagos State.

He said,

The death that occurred in the private hospital is not something that is unusual; private hospitals are still managing lots of patients with pneumonia, and COVID-19 is just one cause of pneumonia. There are several other possible causes of pneumonia.

So, when a patient is admitted into a private hospital with respiratory tract infections, most of the times it is not COVID-19; we have to test and in the process of testing, if it is COVID-19, we will then try and move the patient to the recognised and accredited isolation facility.

We are not encouraging the private sector to manage COVID-19 at this point for a number of reasons. It is still an issue of the state and national security that cases of COVID-19 are managed in recognised facilities.

However, patients with pneumonia can be treated in a private hospital, but as soon as we know they are positive for CONVID-19, we will endeavour to move them as fast as possible to an isolation facility. That is not always so easy, especially if the case is developing complications and they required ventilation.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.