Lagos may extend lockdown if… – Sanwo-Olu

The Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has said that the ongoing lockdown in the state might be extended beyond 14 days.

He said this during a media briefing on Saturday, hours after the Federal Government dropped a similar hint.

Sanwo-Olu said the lockdown would be extended depending on the situation of things, adding that the number of patients discharged in Lagos had risen to 24.

The governor, however, assured residents that palliatives would be provided.

He said: “If there’s a need to extend the lockdown, I will. We got one discharged patient today (recovered from the coronavirus). We are going to sit down with the committee that is working on the community markets and see if we can announce more next week.”

On alleged assault of residents by enforcement agents, Sanwo-Olu said, “There’s been no backlash on the handling of people by the security operatives so far. I always tell them to ‘wear a human face’.”

Meanwhile, residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Lagos State and Ogun State face possible extension of the ongoing 14-day Coronavirus lockdown if they continue to violate the stay-at-home order.

The federal government warned on Friday that the only way to stop the spread of the deadly virus is for the people to play the part the government expects of them.

Information and Culture Minister Lai Mohammed, who dropped hint of a possible extension of the lockdown, said the stay at home order was not being strictly observed.

“If we don’t behave ourselves, there is a likelihood that the lockdown will be extended. But if we behave ourselves, there might not be an extension and I hope we do so,” he said at an interview session with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

He added: “If we stay at home for two weeks and we are doing everything we are supposed to do, we should be able to effectively contain the disease.

“Therefore, my appeal to Nigerians is that they should obey the directive on social distancing, personal hygiene and shun gatherings. After two weeks, we will resume our normal life.

“But if they think it is a joke, then we may have to stay at home more than the two weeks.”

President Muhammadu Buhari announced the lockdown in a broadcast last Sunday as part of the effort to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

The President said the it would last two weeks in the first instance to “identify, trace and isolate all individuals that have come into contact with confirmed cases.”

There were 111 cases in the country when he made the broadcast a week ago.

During the NAN interview, the Information Minister also said that government would not allow families of coronavirus victims claim their remains for burial.

Mohammed said such corpses are delicate hence the Federal Government has assumed responsibility for their handling and burial.

“Coronavirus is very dangerous and contagious; there is no medicine for it yet and it is not just capable of killing, overwhelming health care system but it will destroy the economy,” he said.

“In some countries, they are putting dead bodies in big refrigerators because the morgues have filled up.

“Nigerians should not forget that this is not the type of corpses that can be claimed for burial because it must be handled by the Ministry of Health.”

The minister who is a member of the Presidential Task Force for the Control of Coronavirus said the Federal Government had advised  state governors to provide, at least, 300-bed space facilities in their respective states in case of an upsurge in the coronavirus  pandemic.

He was optimistic that government would use the COVID-19 advantage and experience to further develop the health facilities in the country.

“We pray sincerely that we will not fall into the same error after we fought Ebola, and we relaxed,” he said.

“We intend to use the opportunity of this coronavirus to improve our health care system at the federal, states and local government levels.

“Nobody ever thought that what is worse than Ebola will come. The successes we have achieved so far is through technology, sharing data with WHO, US Centre for Disease Control.

“The governors must not wait for a deluge of patients before making the preparation.

“We are not asking them to build hospitals, but if they have facilities that can be converted such as hotels, conference centres, let us know and we will come and accredit them.

“We will tell them what equipment they would need and what type of training we are going to give as support.”

Mohammed said the Presidential Task Force for the Control of Coronavirus (COVID-19) was yet to receive any money from the funds donated by the private sector towards the fight against COVID-19 pandemic.

When his attention was drawn to calls by some Non-Governmental Organisation for the probe of the task force over the disbursement of monies gathered from the donations, the minister said: “We have not received even one kobo; people want us probed for how we spent monies we have not even seen.

“I can say without any fear that as of this moment, the task force has not received a kobo from anybody.

“The only money we will be able to account for is whatever money we receive from the federal government.

“The Nigeria Economy Group-led private sector has said it is not going to give a penny to the task force; it says it will only raise the money and ask us what our needs are.”

• Adapted from reports by The PUNCH, NAN and The Nation.