1st March, 2020
By Kazeem Ugbodaga
Babajide Sanwo-Olu, governor of Nigeria’s mega city State of Lagos hits by deadly Coronavirus, is angry that unscrupulous people have capitalised on outbreak of the disease in the state to hike prices of face masks, sanitizers, among others.
Sanwo-Olu visited the Public Health Emergency Operations Centre Epidemiology Division, Yaba, Lagos on Sunday where the index case, an Italian is currently being isolated, monitored and treated.
The Italian was in Lagos last week and later went to Lafarge in Ogun State where he was diagnosed of Coronavirus and brought to Lagos for isolation and treatment.
Sanwo-Olu, who was at the centre with his deputy governor, Dr. Olatunji Hamzat said he was satisified with the level of professional commitment by professionals working at the centre, saying that “We are hoping that all of these will get behind us very quickly, but we have all the machinery to deal with it.”
According to the governor, “We’ll continue to scale up advocacy with the various stakeholders that needs to be aware and members of the public would be informed adequately. Various medical professionals, both national, international, regional and security operatives are here communicating with one another and exchanging information.”
The governor said “the power security lab is also good, it is done in collaboration with Canadian government, it is a facility that has four levels of power. There is 60KVA solar panel with an inverter, generator and the power security lab is also on the grid. The level of research going on there is comparable with anyone in the world. The environment is safe and secured.”
Sanwo-Olu stated that Lagosians must take both personal and environmental hygiene very seriously, saying “it must become part of our lives not when we have incidences like this that we begin to learn how to wash our hands or how to secure our environment and how to live healthy.
“People that developed immunity against this type of diseases are people that eat well, sleep well, and live in safe and secured environment. We’ll continue to do everything that is expected of us as government and we’ll continue to provide resources needed by the professionals here, to make this place as comfortable as possible.
“In the event that there are other victims, there are other containment centers. We are collaborating with the federal government, National Disease Control Centre, WHO, UNICEF and African Union.”
The governor lamented that some Nigerians are taking advantage of the crisis at hand to make money by hiking prices of preventive items.
“This is not the means to enrich yourselves, people are abusing a rare opportunity, this is not laughable and not what anybody wishes for, people hoarding things and selling 500 percent above the normal price, we should ask ourselves what kind of people are we? We should be our brothers keepers.”