Lagos State government on Sunday announced that the state is now finding itself at what appears to be the start of a potential third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, prompting it to reiterate the existing guidelines and their strict enforcement to ensure that the situation does not get out of hand.
The state governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who is also the Incident Commander, made this shocking revelation in a release made available to newsmen, disclosing that from the beginning of July, Lagos started to experience a steep increase in the number of daily confirmed cases of the deadly virus, with the test positivity rate going from 1.1% at the end of June 2021 to its current rate of 6.6% as at 8th of July 2021.
The governor said the new rise was contrary to the figure being recorded starting around the end of March 2021, when the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the state began to wind down, and Lagosians began to enjoy some reprieve from the worst effects of the virus, and the government was able to “further open up the economy to allow the start of the journey towards full normalcy in our lives and the pursuit of livelihoods, after what has been a very difficult year.”
Sanwo-Olu, while lamenting the situation, “with the test positivity rate going from 1.1% at the end of June 2021 to its current rate of 6.6% as at 8th of July 2021,” announced new measures, warning that violators or culprits would be made to face the law.
According to him, passengers from red-listed countries, including India, South Africa, Brazil and Turkey are required to observe mandatory isolation as dictated by the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19 (PSC), noting that the had so far successfully isolated 2,386 passengers, while 15% of the figure had absconded.
“The following sanctions are being recommended and have already been meted out to defaulters:
“For Foreigners: Revocation of their Permanent Residency, and deportation; and/for Nigerians: prosecution to the full extent of the Lagos State COVID-19 Law,” he said.
Sanwo-Olu, while disclosing that a total of 50,322 passengers of interest arrived in Lagos via the Murtala Mohammed Airport between 8th May 2021 and 7th July 2021, with EKOTELEMED not being able to reach 18 per cent of the figure “because of the provision of either wrong numbers or wrong Nigerian contact details to be reached on,” said it was the responsibility of passengers to ensure they provided the right details for the government to reach them for proper monitoring.
“Going forward, passengers that do not provide the right details, including a phone number they can be reached for monitoring and an address for isolation, will face serious sanctions, including fines and imprisonment according to our Lagos State Coronavirus Law of 2021,” he vowed.
On the religious activities across the state, Governor Sanwo-Olu admonished that greater vigilance was required at this time in the churches and mosques and other places of religious worship, even as he noted that the state government waspleased that religious houses were now open for worship, after the lengthy closures of 2020.
“We must not allow ourselves to be carried away by the illusion that all is now back to normal. This is especially critical, as Sallah approaches, in a little over a week from now.
“The festivities will no doubt bring people together in large numbers and create conditions that can sadly cause the spread of the Coronavirus. We must not allow this to happen,” he cautioned.
“For this reason, we are mandating full compliance with all protective protocols. Compulsory use of masks in all public places, Social distancing, Temperature checks, Provisions for hand-washing and sanitizers, and a maximum of 50 per cent occupancy in enclosed spaces,” he added.
The governor, in the statement, while further noting that Lagos State government was being counted upon in tackling the rising third wave of COVID-19, assured that the citizens as well as those in charge must be demoralized, “but must instead resolve that we will not leave any stone unturned in our bid to effectively mitigate the third wave of this pandemic in Lagos State.”
“As you all know, Lagos has been the epicentre of the pandemic since the start, and the way we manage it here has a significant impact and reverberating effect on the national outlook and outcomes. So, Nigeria is counting on us in Lagos State to be resolute in our stand against the virus,” he said.
He further assured that the state government would continue to test aggressively, adding that it would also focus on sequencing the samples it was collecting “to ensure we are detecting and keeping track of the different variants in circulation.”
“It is only by testing and sequencing comprehensively that we can collect the data required for informed decision-making,” he added further.
Speaking further, Governor Sanwo-Olu disclosed that as at 7th of July 2021, Lagos State had recorded a total of 60,202 confirmed cases of COVID-19, saying 55,135 out of the figure has recovered in-community and 770 were currently being managed actively in-community.
According to him, “Over the course of managing the COVID-19 pandemic, about 4,382 patients have been admitted into our various COVID-19 care centres in Lagos: with 357 registered fatalities.
“In all we have tested 563,679 samples in Lagos State since the pandemic started. Today we have 30 accredited testing centers: 26 private and 4 public health laboratories in the State, a significant improvement in capacity over the course of the past year.”
The governor, however, clarified that outside of the health facilities accredited for the management and treatment of COVID-19, and the EKOTELEMED program, no other health facilities, whether public or private, were permitted to admit or attend to COVID-19 patients.
The governor said based on this, the Lagos State Health Facility Monitoring and Accreditation Agency (HEFAMAA) was providing monitoring and surveillance and had, therefore, been mandated to apply heavy fines and other punitive measures on all facilities found to be in violation of this.
This was just as he enjoined Lagosians to desist from patronizing non-accredited COVID-19 treatment centres, saying that proprietors should also ensure that all suspected and confirmed cases were referred appropriately.
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