Governor of Lagos state, Babajide Sanwo – Olu, has said his administration may be forced to review the eased lockdown in the state if residents continue to ignore public health guidelines.
The five-week lockdown imposed on Lagos, Ogun and Abuja by President Muhammadu Buhari to check the spread of COVID-19, was eased on Monday, May 4, but there had been complaints of non – adherence to the guidelines of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), particularly on social distancing..
At his maiden briefing after the ease of the lockdown, Sanwo-Olu said:another round of interminable lockdown of movement and business activities was imminent if there was no improvement in adherence to the guidelines initiated to break the cycle of transmission of the dreaded virus.
He said government was worried, watching residents go about their businesses in the last five days without recourse to public health guidelines despite massive advocacy, stressing that the crowd observed at various banks and markets across the state contravened the public gathering directive aimed at combating the pandemic.
The Governor said with the ease of restrictions on movement came increased testing and isolation capacity, pointing out that government would be
introducing community management of cases, by accrediting and incorporating primary healthcare facilities and private healthcare facilities for the management of mild – to -moderate cases of COVID-19 patients.
Sanwo-Olu said the state government’s restriction on the operation of commercial motorcycles, popularly called Okada, had been defied and directed the police to impound any commercial motorcycle found flouting his directive.
The Governor also instructed security personnel to strictly enforce the ban on inter – state movement, directing the police to turn back all pedestrians trekking to Lagos from boundary highways.
He said there would be a change in the state’s isolation strategy in the coming weeks, pointing out that Lagos was transiting towards decentralisation of management of COVID-19 cases.
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