Lagos is running out of bed space for COVID-19 patients

Lagos State, which is the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria, is facing a new challenge.  It is running out of bed space for patients of the disease.

The government of the city now says it  would adopt a strategy of home care treatment for mild cases. But experts are warning that could be dangerous.

It's something many saw coming. Even the Lagos State government had always known its COVID-19 cases could explode beyond the capacity of its healthcare infrastructure. And that is exactly what's playing out at the moment.

On average, the city now records 100 cases of COVID-19 every day.

The government has been opening new isolation centers. But the infection rate is outpacing the building of these isolation centers.

Professor Akin Abayomi, Commissioner of Health, Lagos State:“As we open new isolation facilities, they start to fill up relatively quickly. And we are running at about between 60 and 70 percent bed occupancy now.”

Part of the reasons why there is still some bed space left in the isolation centers is because patients are getting discharged. But there is one other worrying reason.

He adds,“As we diagnose and we try to evacuate the patients to the isolation centres, we are finding it difficult finding some patients. And the trend in increasing.”

Authorities say the runaway  patients are choosing to isolate themselves in different places. And it is partly for that reason and the overstretched isolation centres, it is now adopting a home care management of patients with mild to moderate cases of COVID-19

"The concept of home isolation is being practiced by many Nigerian even though it is not yet a State or a national policy. But the people of Lagos are practicing home isolation, which is one of the reasons why we as a government are trying to transition to home care because it's happening anyway.”

But medical experts in the city are divided over the issue of home isolation.

"The number of person coming into the isolation centres is higher than the number exiting. I am sure this has prompted the need to reconsider the treatment pattern especially for asymptomatic cases. So I think that as we all know that COVID -19 is something that will stay with us for quite some time, then we must begin to look at areas and find a way of managing cases, especially mild cases. And so I'm in line with the propositions of the Lagos State government,”Dr. Oluwole Ayodele, Public Health Physician says.

Dr. Tuyi Mebawondu, Public Health Physician:“In the slum, you have people that are staying like 10-20 in a room. No sanitary condition, no hygiene, no water supply. And then you are transferring these people to those communities and such houses for home management. Now the big questions is what do you do in home management? They have to stay in a room. They have to be alone inside that room. They have to use different toilet, different utensils, who is going to take charge of them. they have to maintain hygiene and sanitation, maintain social distancing and then they have to use personal protective equipment if they have to manage people at home. Who is going to be the caregiver in that situation?”

The Lagos State government says managing a single patient in an isolation centre is costing around 130 dollars.

The government is also projecting the number of cases in the city could hit around 120,000 by July. So the home care management policy might just be a difficult proposal to ignore.