After weeks of lockdown and low activities in Lagos State, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu yesterday said his administration is considering a full re-opening of the critical sectors of the state’s economy.
He said the state government could not afford to keep people and businesses permanently locked down.
Subsequently, Sanwo-Olu said the state government would be rolling out Register-to-Open initiative as part of the plans that would enable it to assess the level of readiness of the players in the identified sectors for supervised operations.
The governor also hinted that some staff of the State House Marina earlier tested positive for COVID-19 had been discharged following their recovery.
Sanwo-Olu, however, appealed to Ogun State government to improve on its border surveillance to prevent the influx of its residents into Lagos, saying that several people use the state borders to sneak into Lagos.
Giving an update on the COVID-19 management in the state after the State’s Security Council meeting held at the State House, Marina, yesterday, Sanwo-Olu said officials from the Lagos State Safety Commission (LSSC) and Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA) will be visiting restaurants, companies and religious houses to assess their level of readiness.
He said: “We are at a level where we are reviewing the other arms of the economy. In the coming days, we will be starting what we call Register-to-Open, which means all players in the restaurant business, event centres, entertainment, malls and cinemas will go through a form of re-registration and space management.
“There is a regulation that will be introduced to supervise this move. We will be coming to their facilities to assess their level of readiness for a future opening. I don’t know when that opening will happen in the weeks ahead, but we want these businesses to begin to tune themselves to the reality of COVID-19 with respect to how their workspaces need to look like.
“For us, it is not to say they should re-open fully tomorrow or any time; there has to be a process guiding the re-opening. We will be mandating LASEPA and Safety Commission to begin the enumeration process and the agencies will be communicating with all relevant businesses and houses in the days ahead.
“I must, however, caution that this should not be misinterpreted as a licence for full opening; it is certainly not. The state’s economy is not ready for that now.”
Sanwo-Olu said the government agencies also would be visiting places of worship to evaluate their level of preparedness ahead of full reopening.
He stressed that social distancing and hygiene would be fully considered in determining whether mosques and churches can re-open in the future.
“We are reviewing and considering how the phased unlocking will happen. If we see a huge level of compliance, then it can happen in the next two to three weeks. If not, it could take a month or two months. It is until we are sure all of these players are ready to conform to our guidelines,” the governor asserted.
Sanwo-Olu urged businesses, religious houses and residents to maintain the status quo while the state works out modalities for full re-opening.
The governor said 15 more COVID-19 patients comprising nine females and six males were discharged from Yaba, Agidingbi and LUTH Isolation facilities to reunite with the society.
Nine of the discharged patients were from the Mainland Infectious Disease Hospital, Yaba; five from the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) and one from Agidingbi Isolation Centre.
With the latest discharged patients, the governor said that the total number of patients treated and discharged in the state stands 623.
The governor disclosed that all the 10 staff of the Government House who tested positive for COVID-19 had fully recovered and returned to their beats.
He said the disclosure was necessary to further promote transparency in the reporting and management of COVID-19 cases by the state government.
Sanwo-Olu enjoined banks and markets to strictly enforce orderliness in their premises.
He directed that elderly people must be given the priority to transact their businesses in banks and markets between 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., after which other younger customers should be allowed to transact.
Lagos residents, the governor charged, must not take the easing of lockdown for granted, saying everyone residing in the state must collectively take responsibility for public health safety.
Source (New Telegraph Newspaper)
