Nigeria’s first coronavirus patient confirms negative, discharged from hospital

The first COVID-19 patient in Nigeria has been discharged after testing negative, Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-olu declared.

The governor took to his Twitter handle on Friday evening to reveal this with pictures of the Italian, the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Akin Abayomi, and other health officials.

“As the COVID-19 Incident Commander for Lagos State, I am glad to inform you that the index case the Italian gentleman is now negative”, Mr Sanwo-olu tweeted.

“Through a combined effort of Lagos State, 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.”

“The index patient consented to donate one unit of white blood (otherwise called plasma) before he was discharged today (Friday). The blood plasma is rich in anti-body proteins that target the COVID-19 virus.

“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 index patient appreciated the exceptional care and support given to him by the staff of the mainland Infectious Disease Hospital, Yaba, all members of the EOC and Lagos State Government”

“The EOC team was extremely happy to bid the patient farewell.”

“Once again, we like to convey the enthusiasm of our team to do the very best possible in handling incidents of Coronavirus.”

Nigeria has confirmed 12 cases of COVID-19 so far, out of which two have now fully recovered and have been discharged. No death has been recorded in Nigeria from the disease which has killed over 10,000 globally.