Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has said that the Italian who first tested positive for coronavirus in Nigeria has been released.
Mr Sanwo-Olu revealed this on Friday at a press briefing as the state’s incident commander on the management of the coronavirus.
“As the COVID-19 Incident Commander for Lagos, I am glad to inform you that the index case; the Italian gentleman is now negative,” he said.
“Through a combined effort of Lagos, Ogun State and federal health authorities, we were able to limit the transmission of the virus to a single contact.”
“This involved aggressive contact tracing and containment strategies. However we now have several new imported cases and we hope we can apply the same contact tracing strategy along with social distancing to slow down the outbreak which may be brewing from these new cases.”
Mr Sanwo-Olu said the index patient consented to donating one unit of white blood (plasma) before he was discharged.
“The blood plasma is rich in antibody proteins that target COVID-19 virus,” he said.
“The white blood plasma is frozen in our bio-bank and will be useful in handling new cases.
“The blood plasma will be beneficial for the treatment of new patients in the absence of a defined therapeutic drug for COVID-19 yet.”
The governor said the patient appreciated the ‘exceptional’ care and support given to him by staff of the infectious Disease Hospital,Yaba and all members of the Emergency Operation Centre (EOC).
“The EOC team was extremely happy to bid the patient farewell,” he said.
The 44-year-old Italian arrived Nigeria from Milan, Italy, on February 24. He visited Ogun State the following day.
