Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has called on Muslim faithful to pray at home during Ramadan, saying there is need to maintain preventive measures to curtail the spread of the Coronavirus.
While speaking during a media briefing on Monday, April 20, Sanwo-Olu appealed to Muslims to observe prayer in their various homes.
However, Governor Sanwo-Olu said more cases might be discovered as more tests are conducted, as Lagos has recorded nearly 60% of Nigeria’s cases.
He urged people not to panic as the state continues to battle to contain the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19).
Sanwo-Olu said the increase in cases being recorded is due to improved testing capacity.
“With these high statistics, the natural reaction is for people to panic and to ask questions about why we still see significant numbers despite all the efforts we made including the lockdown.
“Let me assure you that there is no need to panic. The increase we’re seeing is evidence of the success of our evolving strategy of ramping up testing, by going into our local communities,” he said.
The Lagos government announced on Sunday that it was setting up sampling stations in the 20 local government areas of the state in order to increase coronavirus testing capacity. This is to enable citizens that fit the case definition of the disease to visit and drop samples for testing.
“As we implement this strategy and take testing deeper into our communities, we’ll expect that we’ll see more positive cases,” the governor said.
The governor noted that only two of two different groups of travellers that recently entered the state from neighbouring countries have tested positive for the virus.
He said all the 67 Nigerians who recently came through the Seme border and were quarantined in Badagry tested negative and will be discharged on Tuesday, April 21.
However, the two that tested positive were from another group of 23 returnees who also came through the Seme border.
Sanwo-Olu also noted that there’s an ongoing trend of people from neighbouring states coming in to test for the coronavirus disease in Lagos and insisting on staying in the state for treatment.
Lagos remains the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak in Nigeria with 376 cases recorded, nearly 60% of Nigeria’s total of 627, as of April 19, 2020.
The state recorded 187 new cases over the past week – 70 of those cases were recorded on Sunday alone, its highest single day record of new cases.
Nigeria has recorded coronavirus cases in 21 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
170 people have recovered and been discharged, but 21 people have died.
