•‘Infected Govt House Staffers Have Recovered’ – Governor.
Lagos State is considering full re-opening of the critical sectors of its economy, Governor Babajide
Sanwo-Olu, revealed on Sunday. But, the move will not be pushed in a hurry.
In the coming days, Sanwo-Olu said the State Government would be rolling out Register-to-Open
initiative as part of the plans that would enable it assess the level of readiness of the players in the
identified sectors for supervised operations.
The Governor spoke at a briefing after the State’s Security Council meeting held at the State House in
Marina.
Sanwo-Olu said officials from the Lagos State Safety Commission (LSSC) and Lagos State Environmental
Protection Agency (LASEPA) will be visiting restaurants, companies, religious houses to assess their level
of readiness.
With the size of the State’s economy and numbers of businesses that operate in its domain, the
Governor said the Government could not afford to keep people and businesses on lockdown
permanently.
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 centers, 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 work spaces need to look like.
“For us, it is not to say they should re-open fully tomorrow or any time; there has 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 license 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 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 disclosed that all the 10 staff of the Government House who tested positive for
Coronavirus (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 coronavirus 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 bank and markets between 9am
and 10:30am, after which other younger customers should be allowed to transact.
Yemisi Ireoluwa
