(Ilorin)
Kwara State Government has has commenced the distribution of face masks produced produced within the state in a bid to curtail transmission of the pandemic Coronavrus in the state.
It has also ordered partial relaxation of the lockdown in the state to align with the national policy of gradual reopening of the economy.
Mr Kayode Alabi, the Deputy Governor and Chairman of the Kwara State Technical Committee on COVID-19,disclosed this at a news briefing in Ilorin.
He urged the people not to misconstrue the relaxation of the lockdown to mean the country or Kwara is out of the danger of COVID-19.
He said:”In line with the Federal Government’s guidelines to gradually open up the economy, His Excellency the Governor has directed the Kwara State Technical Committee to come up with modalities on how to gradually return to normalcy from Monday May 4,2020.
“We want to make it abundantly clear that we are caught between two extremes as we are definitely not out of the wood.
“We are caught on the one hand by the need to protect people’s lives in compliance with our oath of office and on the other, by the need to not totally cripple the economy.
“ Kwara has recorded three more new cases of COVID-19. That takes us to 14 confirmed cases Of these, 12 are active as we had earlier discharged two.
” All our cases are stable and in the best spirit. We want to emphasise that one of the three new cases was imported while the remaining two are contacts of our earlier cases.
“Aggressive contact tracing has begun. The incident of another imported case explains why we are now deploying military personnel to man our borders while police and other security agencies maintain their hold internally.
“We are proud to say that our strategy to prevent community dissemination is working so far. We thank all our frontline workers for this great feat. We urge them to keep the good work.
“In recognition of their hard work and sacrifice, His Excellency, the Governor, has approved special allowances for all the healthcare workers attending to our COVID-19 cases in Kwara State.”
Alabi expressed the resolve of the committee to ensure that all safety protocols partaking to the measures aimed at containing the virus were respected.
He said though markets and businesses would open everyday, but in 60 per cent capacity of their pre-COVID 19 operations while commercial transporters, except motorcyclists, would be permitted to work within the state at varied capacity.
“Taxis will carry just three passengers per trip, tricyclists can only transport two persons at a time while commercial buses are to carry 50 per cent of their capacity, Alabi said.
He warned that any violation would be met with a crackdown.
The deputy Governor also said that schools, hotels, beer parlours and night clubs remained shut while restaurants were to serve takeaways only.
Sport gatherings, religious and non-religious gatherings, concerts and other social parties also remain banned for now, according to the Deputy Governor.
