Akin Abayomi, commissioner for health in Lagos, says sometimes it is difficult for the state to locate patients after their samples have been tested for the coronavirus.

According to the commissioner, such patients flee their homes and become unreachable on their mobile phone lines.

Speaking at a press briefing on Friday, he said this was one of the reasons the available bed spaces at the state’s isolation centres are not yet filled to capacity.

He appealed to residents to cooperate with the health workers as part of efforts to contain the spread of the virus.

“There is also a situation that we experience; when we test people, sometimes they find it difficult to find them. The ambulances will go into communities, people will flee their homes, and they make it difficult for us to find them,” he said.

“If you have tested positive, we expect you to cooperate with us and make yourself available so that you can be admitted and accessed.

“Our isolation facilities are really comfortable. It is not like the Ebola days; we have made a lot of improvements. Members of the executive and senior people in government have been admitted into those facilities. If I test positive, I will go to one of those facilities.”

He added that about 307 beds are unoccupied out of the 569 spaces available