“Considering the level of compliance with government’s directives on limiting the spread of Covid-19 in a Lagos State, should the State Government impose another lockdown or not?”
Options to choose from: Lock-down, Don’t Lock-down and Neutral
This is the question that the Lagos State government posed to the public on 12 May 2020 via its official twitter handle. Lagos State, the epicenter of covid-19 outbreak in Nigeria, was placed under lock-down by President Muhammadu Buhari in an effort to control the spread of the novel coronavirus in the country.
Ogun state and FCT were simultaneously placed under lock-down with Lagos state by the president.
On 27 April, the President announced his approval for a phased and gradual easing of lock-down measures in FCT, Lagos and Ogun States effective from Monday, 4th May, 2020 at 9am.
This gradual easing of lock-down measures came with some rules which people must adhere to based on guidelines given by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19. These guidelines includes but not limited to wearing of face mask in public, maintaining social distance of at least 2 meters, avoidance of social gathering and regulated opening hours for businesses.
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However, there has been reports that these measures are not being observed and in some cases difficult to adhere to, giving the peculiar situation of Nigeria settings.
As a result, number of cases continue to rise in Lagos state and other parts of the country.
Out of 5,162 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Nigeria, 40.66% are in Lagos state. The state has recorded 2,099 cases of Covid-19, with 541 recoveries and 33 deaths as at 14 May 2020.
The voting on the question will end in about an hour time from the time of this report. From the results of the 78,967 votes that has been cast, “Lock-down” has garnered more votes with 48.7% of the total votes.
Below is the details of the voting.
From this result, one can only conclude that if the state government decides to act based on the results, it simply means that Lagos state will go into another lock-down. However, one just have to await for the next action of the Babajide Sanwo-Olu led government.
Update
The voting on this question has ended, with a total of 79,085 votes made. “Lock-down” maintained 48.7% of the votes. See attached detail.
Written by
Ifunanya Ikueze