The Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has announced that wearing of face masks is compulsory in public places in the state from next week. The governor said this would help to curb the spread of coronavirus in the state. He said this during a televised media briefing on COVID-19 updates. He said, “The increase in numbers we are seeing is evidence of the success of our evolving strategy of ramping up testing by going into local communities to search for cases. You may have heard that we have recently set up sample collection centers across our 20 Local Government Areas.
“The most appropriate response from us as a Government is to tell residents not to panic; but to strengthen our resolve to continue to obey all the directives around physical distancing, respiratory hygiene, and staying at home.
Babajide Sanwo-Olu
“Also, there have been questions about whether the State Government is planning to introduce a face mask-wearing policy. Our simple answer is that it may be compulsory to wear one in public places from next week. We have already commissioned local production of face masks in large quantities in a way that will suit our environment and be pocket friendly.”
Sanwo-Olu said the masks would be pocket-friendly and suit the local environment, cautioning against panic buying.
He added that millions of the locally made face masks would be distributed to a large number of residents by next week.
Also he advised Lagos residents to wear locally made face masks stressing that surgical facemasks or N95 are strictly for health officials only.
