Lagos State Government, has threatened to lockdown Lagos again if Lagosians continue to violate the social distancing order.

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu expressed displeasure that some Lagosians, especially those in the transportation sector did not obey the social distancing order in totality.

The governor, while giving update on the Coronavirus situation in the state, said on the first day of this new phase of an eased lockdown, the compliance level for commercial transport sector operations was regrettably very low.

“Yellow Buses especially, failed to comply with the capacity restrictions outlined in our framework. While compliance has improved in subsequent days, it is still not encouraging. Many commercial motorcycle operators openly and indiscriminately defied the suspension.

“The ban on Inter-state travel except for essential goods and services was also consistently flouted. In many cases people decided to make the final leg of the journey into the State on foot, to beat the restrictions.

“Trucks and other vehicles carrying items designated as essential, have also played major roles in flouting the guidelines, by conspiring to conceal and smuggle people in and out of the State,” he said.

According to Sanwo-Olu, the reports about mask usage in public places had also not been encouraging as many people were still choosing to go out without masks or face coverings of any kind, saying this was simply unacceptable.

“Let me reiterate that the success of this gradual easing of the lockdown is dependent upon the compliance of each and every one of us.

“As a Government, elected to uphold the security of Lagos State – and this includes health security – let me make it clear that we will not hesitate to review the terms of this easing if we continue to see evidence that Lagosians are determined to flout the rules.

“I am aware that the Presidential Task Force has also made this point; that the continued maintenance of this easing is only guaranteed when people consistently comply.

“Let the numbers we have seen this week stand as a warning to all of you the good people of Lagos State. What we are seeing is child’s play compared to what we could be seeing if we continue to be irresponsible,” he warned.

However, Sanwo-Olu, said five days into this gradual easing, “we can look back and pronounce a verdict on the general levels of compliance in major sectors of our economy.

“Let me start with the encouraging news. We have seen our manufacturing and construction companies gradually ease back into operation. We are happy with the level of compliance in this sector, as well as the beneficial impact of this limited resumption on our economy.

“In the case of our intra-state commuting, and particularly with our BRT and LBSL Buses, and water transport operations, substantial compliance with the carriage policy of no more than 60 percent of maximum capacity was recorded. Markets and Mechanic Villages also demonstrated significant compliance.

“In terms of open markets and stores, our directive was that food and farm produce markets will open on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, while markets dealing in other items will open on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. We have seen high levels of compliance in this regard, as well as in the maintenance of physical distancing and the use of face masks in the markets,” he said.

Sanwo-Olu opened up on why Lagos is recording huge Coronavirus infections in the last few days, saying as at Friday, May 8, 2020, Lagos has 1,683 confirmed cases of Coronavirus and has discharged 448 patients and lost 33 people.

The governor, said the success of its efforts at ramping up testing, was part of the reason why the state was seeing a significant escalation in the number of cases in Lagos State.

He said in the last six days since his last address, while the state had seen a 32% increase in the number of fatalities in Lagos State, and a 62% increase in the number of confirmed cases, the state had also seen a remarkable 100% increase in the number of persons who have fully recovered.

“This trend of recoveries is very encouraging, and we believe it will continue at this rate. It gives us some of the much-needed confidence to face the difficult days and weeks ahead.

“Let me say, as I have said before, that the success of our efforts, at ramping up testing, is part of the reason why we are seeing a significant escalation in the number of cases in Lagos State.

“Quite clearly, also, we are firmly in the community transmission stage of the infection, and the only way to be sure we are making all the right decisions is ensuring that we continue to scale up testing. We now have four testing facilities in Lagos State, and we remain grateful to the NCDC and all other partners who are involved,” he said.

According to Sanwo-Olu “Our combined lab capacity is at about 850 tests daily. This is easily scalable to 1,500 and 2,000 subject to the availability of extraction kits considering the acute global shortage.

“Lagos State has paid for over 20,000 extraction kits and has placed an order for another 20,000 in its bid to test at least 120,000 in the next 60 days.

“50% of the backlog, I spoke about recently, has been cleared which is also responsible for the recent seemingly high rate of positive cases in the last couple of days.

“Suppliers of kits are the manufacturers and their local representatives. However, the bid is open to any company with repute and integrity who can supply the desired kits to specification,” he added.

In this same vein, the governor said he had also mandated the state laboratory apparatus to commence the local
production of certain items used for the diagnostic process and that this had commenced already.

He added that the State had also started a bi-weekly procurement of laboratory needs to prevent running out of these materials going forward, until at least 120,000 tests were done in a about two months.

Sanwo-Olu said in addition to increasing Testing capacity, the State had also actively increasing its isolation capacity.

“You will also see a change in our Isolation strategy in the weeks ahead, as we transition towards decentralisation.

“What this means is that we will be introducing community management of cases, by accrediting and incorporating primary health care facilities and private healthcare facilities for the management of mild-to-moderate cases of COVID-19 patients. We must be careful to ensure that this is not done at the expense of the capacity required to handle other medical cases.

“There is also the important task of ensuring that we are collecting all the right data and using these data to plan and to revise our response as a State.

“I am pleased to note that Lagos State is developing an emergency digital response platform that will help us collect the data necessary for informed decision-making,” he said.