Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has cited the delayed shutdown of Nigeria’s airports, borders and seaports, plus the failure of returnees to self-isolate, caused the spread of coronavirus disease in the country.

He stated this during an Instalive interview with CNN on Wednesday, April 29th, 2020.

Governor sanwo-Olu said that Lagos was prepared to contain the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), but was forced to wait for the Federal Government to close down airports, land borders and seaports.

Even though Nigeria recorded its first COVID-19 fatality on February 27th, 2020, President Muhammadu Buhari officially shut the nation’s airports, borders and seaports on March 29th, 2020.

As of March 29th, 2020 when president closed Nigeria’s airports, borders and seaports, the country had recorded one hundred and eleven (111) confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and one death.

When asked about the state’s preparedness, Sanwo-Olu said,

Given the population that we have, we are a bit ahead in terms of preparation, as a state, but we are sub-national. We couldn’t give directives as to when Nigeria should close the airport, seaport, or in-land border.

We don’t have control over that. We were just wrapping up our own facilities and the training officials, and that was why we were able to track the index case over two months now.

In the country, 33 or 34 states have had one case or the other. For us, it is a double X thing. The population is huge, so we will be a fool of ourselves to just think that it is going to be a spike and we will be out of it. Because we did not close all of the importations early and people were not also doing full isolation when they came, it was really difficult for us to do contact tracing before it got to the community – which is where we are now.

The governor also warned that the state may be recording large number of COVID-19 cases “soon”, adding that over 7,000 samples had been tested in the state.

He said,

We are pretty much getting to the peak season. We will soon see a large number because testing is now wrapped up. It is a public health issue and we needed to take our protocols from NCDC and other international organisations.

Testing kits were rationalised and we could not do more than we were given. Even the accreditation requires processes. We have learnt it now and we are applying it.

Meanwhile, the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, said Lagos State has recorded so far nine hundred and forty seven (947) confirmed coronavirus (COVID-19) cases.

He said,

87 new #COVID-19 cases were confirmed in Lagos on April 29, 2020. The total number of confirmed cases in Lagos is now 947.

The good news is that 49 additional #COVID-19 survivors have been discharged following their full recovery. The total number of discharged patients in Lagos now stands at 187.

We regret to announce additional #COVID19 related death involving a 25-year-old male who at the time of admission was in a state of severe breathlessness. The total number of COVID-19 related deaths in Lagos is now 20.

I again urge Lagos residents to remain committed to observing necessary precautionary measures to stop COVID-19 infection. Let’s be vigilant and report any concern about COVID-19 infection in our communities.

However, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Wednesday, April 29th, 2020 announced that Lagos State had recorded twenty one (21) deaths resulting from coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.