Coronavirus: 80% of emergency calls received are hoax - Lagos health commissioner
- Akin Abayomi, Lagos state health commissioner, has confirmed that 80% of the calls received on the CORONA emergency lines are hoax calls
- The commissioner said the hoax calls are distracting the management of the coronavirus outbreak in Lagos state and across the country
- Abayomi said the calls were from people calling for fun or insult the health workers
As Nigeria continues to fight COVID-19, the Lagos state health commissioner, Akin Abayomi, has revealed that 80% of the calls received on the emergency lines dedicated to coronavirus are hoax calls.
Abayomi, during a presentation at the state Secretariat on Monday, April 6, said the hoax calls received by the Lagos State Emergency responders are very distracting in managing the outbreak in the state and across the nation, Premium Times reports.
While giving a breakdown of the calls, the health commissioner noted that 59% of the calls were from NCDC diverted to Lagos, while 27% were put through to the Lagos state 08000CORONA and 14% were random calls received by the commissioner himself and other officials.
He further explained that 31,040 were hoax calls from members of the public for fun, pranks or to pass insults to health workers. The health commissioner expressed worry over the calls as they are disturbing the interventions of the government.
Source: UGC
He said: “We have completed and closed down the cases of 95 percent of all the alerts, four percent of them were not reachable and one percent is still in process.
“Out of the nine percent, only four percent of the calls actually resulted in a red flag where health workers are either sent to get a sample of the patients or retrieve them for isolation and treatment.
We are very concerned about these hoax calls, this is why many complain they could not reach us, our lines are being jammed by irresponsible members of the society.”
The commissioner urged Nigerians to stop making hoax calls, the use of aggressive language to staff and pranking health workers.
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Legit.ng previously reported that Lagos state government announced a casualty from coronavirus, officially bringing the death toll from the deadly pandemic to two in the state.
Abayomi, made the announcement on Sunday, April 5, via his Twitter account. He disclosed that the victim was a 36-year-old Nigerian male who died in a private facility on Saturday, April 4. The commissioner, who said two cases have been evacuated from the state, also added that Lagos recorded six cases of coronavirus.
In a related development, the commissioner for health in Lagos revealed that the state currently has 74 active cases of coronavirus.
In a press briefing on Friday, April 3, at Lagos Island Maternity Hospital, Lagos Island, Abayomi revealed that Lagos has a record of 68% imported cases and 32% local transmission.
Abayomi added that Eti-Osa local government area has the highest numbers of confirmed cases of the virus in the state, precisely 47 at the moment.
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Source: Legit.ng