Coronavirus: Oyo State Government places ban on public gatherings

Segun Showunmi in Ibadan

The Oyo State Government on Monday placed a ban on gatherings such as religious services, weddings, and burial ceremonies, as well as other social engagements, declaring that henceforth such gatherings should be limited to 30 persons or less.

Penpushing reports that Governor Seyi Makinde made this known in a state broadcast to address the spread of coronavirus in the State, held at the government house, Agodi, Ibadan, and also ordered that night clubs should henceforth remained closed

The Governor pointed out that,, this is the time to come together as a people to fight a common enemy, COVID-19, also known as Coronavirus, noting that  the new development calls for stepping up even further, for his administration to take measures in order to prevent, contain and control the spread of the illness.

“Therefore, I am obligated to place a ban on gatherings such as religious services, weddings, parties, burial ceremonies and so on; gatherings should be limited to 30 persons or less. Nightclubs will have to remain closed. These measures will be reviewed in two weeks”,he said

“I have already directed that all public and private schools in Oyo State should be closed until after Easter. The ongoing workers’ verification exercise has been suspended. The Free Health Mission has also been suspended.”

“I want to make it clear that I understand how this pandemic will affect us socially, economically and spiritually, but these are the sacrifices we need to make to preserve and protect our loved ones”,Makinde emphasised

Penpushing further reports that the Governor said  the first case of the novel Coronavirus Disease was confirmed in Oyo State on Saturday, 21st March 2020,  adding that since the identification of the Ekiti case on the 18th of March, 2020, the Oyo State Government has ramped up its preparedness for any possible outbreak of the pandemic.

“We set up a COVID-19 Task Force which I am heading. We have activated the Disease Surveillance and Notification System Officers in the 33 Local Government Areas and the 35 Local Council Development Areas.”

“We are collaborating with the College of Medicine to set up two Diagnostic Centres at the University College Hospital, Ibadan which will begin operations by the end of the week. Both are awaiting the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control’s validation. We are also awaiting reagents for testing which have been ordered.”

“We have also set up an additional isolation centre by redesignating the Maternal and Health Centre at Olodo as the Oyo State Infectious Disease Centre with a capacity for over 100 cases. Rehabilitation of the isolation centre is ongoing.”

Penpushing also reports that  Makinde explained  that as a result of the newly designated isolation centre at Olodo, his administration now reduced the previous five isolation centres to three, which are : ten-bed isolation centre at Jericho Chest Hospital, Ibadan, Four-bed isolation centre at University College Hospital, Ibadan, and Four-bed isolation centre at Ladoke Akintola University Teaching Hospital, Ogbomoso.”

“We have purchased and are presently refitting two dedicated ambulances for conveying critical cases to the isolation centres, while emergency personal protective gears have been provided for health workers with more already ordered.”

“An emergency Operation Centre (EOC) has been set up and is now operational with an Incidence Manager, Dr. Taiwo Ladipo of the Ministry of Health. In addition, a five-member committee of experts has been approved to act as sub-committee for the EOC. We have provided numbers to call in case of emergencies.

“All returning expatriate staffers in the state are presently in isolation and are being monitored; however, with the confirmation of the first case and a clear understanding of how this disease can be transmitted, it cannot remain business as usual. We have postponed the Nigerian Mining and Geosciences Summit, indefinitely. We have also postponed the Agribusiness Summit, indefinitely.”

“In times of anxiety, people want to come together physically and draw strength from the presence of others, but the advice on how to contain this virus is that we should do the exact opposite.This virus is disrupting our lives in ways that we never imagined any disease would’.

‘But we can conquer it. We have seen the number of new cases drop in other places around the world and we have to copy all they did, as far as our local circumstances can permit, to keep the numbers here in manageable proportions.”

Penpushing reports that, Governor Makinde however called on the people of the state to work with his administration and do everything in their power to practice social distancing.