BABAJIDE Sanwo-Olu, Governor of Lagos State has ordered the reopening of mosques and churches in the state as from August 7.
The governor while making the announcement during a press briefing held at the Government House on Saturday added that the state would only allow a maximum of 50 percent capacity at either the church or mosque while the number of public gathering capacity be increased from 20 to 50 people.
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In a 44 seconds video posted on Twitter by Gboyega Akosile, Sanwo-Olu’s Chief Press Secretary, the governor stated that all religious houses in the state can be opened with 50 per cent capacity on Fridays only and Sundays only.
“The places of worship are only permitted to have their regular once a week service on designated days. For the avoidance of doubt, there will be Friday worship for our Muslim brothers and Sunday worship for our Christian followers,” the governor said.
He added that the state government “will monitor this for the next couple of weeks and see” the level of compliance.
According to him, no night vigils would be allowed while persons of 65 years and above were strongly advised to stay at home.
He noted that social clubs and recreational centers would also be allowed to open from 14 of August, after being re-certified by the Lagos State Safety Commission.
The ICIR reported that Lagos State Government suspended the reopening of places of worship and event centres and gatherings which was scheduled for June 19 and 21, as a result of advice from health officials.
According to The ICIR’s COVID-19 dashboard, as of August 1, Lagos State tops the list with a total of 15,121 number of confirmed cases out of 19,565 in the country
Samad Uthman is a multimedia journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting. He tweets @sarmerdk2 and can be shot through [email protected]