Lagos govt’s response to COVID-19 ‘disappointing’ —PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State has described as disappointing the state’s preparedness to fight a full-blown COVID-19 pandemic.

The party stated this on Tuesday in a statement by its state Chairman, Engr Adedeji Doherty.

In the statement entitled, ‘The fight against the Coronavirus pandemic in Lagos, matters arising’, Doherty asked the Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, to urgently look into the funding of the health sector, especially as it pertained to the funding of the fight against COVID-19.

“I think we should be truthful with ourselves and stop using this crises as a propaganda tool, Lagos State is still not ready to receive a full blown COVID-19 Surge,” he said.

The PDP chairman in the state said that Lagos State, “having been opportuned to have the Ruling Party run the affairs of the state consistently for over 20 years, had not invested any reasonable amount of money in the health sector even though it had always been included in the budget.”

The statement read in full:

“It is very disappointing to see that after about a month of the virus hitting Lagos, our State Government is still gabbling with the very minute tools to fight the surge.

“How can we say everyday that we are fighting this virus and we don’t have the minimum number of ventilators, test kit, fumigation tools and most importantly the first Responders’ Personal Protection Equipment (PPE). What we want to hear or see is cargo planes landing with the tools to fight the virus not all this sound bites in the media about only policies of containment.

“The food banks, the total lock down and the other policy announcement of the Babajide Sanwo Olu led administration isn’t enough to take care of the treatment and containment of the affected patients.

“Lagosians need to know what the government is doing to receive the patients in fairly large numbers, it is a known fact that private individuals and institutions are making frantic efforts to assist our people but they are also experiencing their own hiccups, an example is the global availability of test kits and ventilators.

“The four major steps to take in order to contain this virus are (1) Early Detection Testing (2) Stay Home / Lockdown Order and (3) The Protection of the first Responders, who are the Doctors and Nurses and (4) the process of Educating the public .

“All the above must go in tandem. The tools for these four important criteria to crystallise is what Lagosians need to know.

“You can only provide palliatives for the living and not when they’re dead.”

He added that Lagos government also needed to work with the telecommunications service providers to create a database for tracking the index carriers, secondary infected residents and help in the enhancement of governments virus carrier contact tracking within the state.”

READ ALSO: Lagos bars private hospitals from treating COVID-19 disease

Doherty, therefore, advised the governor to build a database and a statistical digital bank of the step by step experience of this crisis till it ends.

He pleaded with the general public to adhere to the social distancing and lockdown order being imposed on residents in Lagos State and its environs since the pandemic is still
far from reaching its peak in Lagos and Nigeria at large.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now