The Lagos State Government has charged religious centres not to compromise on the ”No face mask, No entry” guideline in order to curb the spread of coronavirus disease.
Mr Lanre Mojola, Director General, Lagos State Safety Commission (LSSC), gave the charge during a news briefing on Friday at Ikeja.
Mojola said that any worship centre that failed to observe the ”No face mask, No entry” and other guidelines would be shut.
He said that officials of the COVID-19 Compliance Taskforce would be deployed to strictly enforce all the guidelines earlier announced by Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
It would be recalled that the governor had on Thursday, June 4, announced the reopening of religious centres in Lagos, from June 19 for mosques and June 21 for churches, with an attendance of 40 per cent capacity or not more than 500 worshipers.
Reiterating the state’s recent guideline on religious gathering, the DG said that while religious centres had been directed to open in two weeks time, their worship services should be restricted to not more than once a week, as mid-week and other programmes remained suspended.
He urged that worshippers should abide by the issued safety guidelines which included: physical distancing; regular disinfection; temperature check; wearing of face mask; and having more than one service.
According to him, attendees to worship centres should be above 15 and not above 65 years of age.
Moyola encouraged that outdoor services be preferred to indoor services, and people running temperature higher than 37.5 should be restricted from entering into the venue.
Other safety measures include avoiding hand shakes; ensuring 2-metres distancing; stationary collections or electronic cash transfer for offering; effectively controlled traffic for exiting worship venues; as well as guarding against loitering around worship arena.
He said that worship centres should nominate representatives to serve as interface in liaising with the LSSC.
”We will continue to enforce the guidelines; we will continue to sensitise our citizenry so that we can collectively fight this virus,” the DG said.
Speaking on reopening of businesses in the state, Mojola urged business organisations to follow the ”Register-To-Open” policy, as it was geared toward full reopening of the economy.
He urged businesses to logon to the portal, www.lasgsafetyreg.com to register, which would not take more than five minutes and obtain the Safety Compliance Certificate for the reopening of their businesses, offered by the state government free of charge.
Mojola said that business owners should report through the government’s whistleblower numbers, any official that wanted to collect money for the Safety Compliance Certificate.
According to him, over 1,000 businesses have applied for accreditation to reopen and their registrations have been processed. (NAN)
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