Covid-19: Doherty sends warning to Lagos Governor, Sanwo-Olu

The Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party in Lagos State , Engr Adedeji Doherty has asked the Governor Of Lagos State to urgently look into the funding of the Health Sector especially as it pertains to the fight to rid the state of 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 recieve a full blown COVID-19 Surge. In fact there is no evidence that the state can cope with 1000 cases today.”

Till this very moment, Lagos state has not disclosed the number of tests conducted, it has not disclosed how many have been positive and how many negative. It refuses to disclose the number of ventilators, test kits, manpower, gloves, masks, eye protectors that it has procured or has in stock.

Instead what we see every day is a chest beating and back slapping and commendations from the officials of Lagos state. They keep congratulating themselves for a job well done when it is obvious that the job has not yet began.

“This pandemic has exposed the reality. The sad reality that the despite running the state for 20years the APC has not invested significantly in the health sector despite budgetary allocations.

The make shift treatment centre in a tent supplied by GT Bank is probably the best facility available in the state so far and that should make us all uncomfortable.

It is very disappointing to see that after about a month of the virus hitting Lagos, our State Government is still gambling with the very inferior supplies to fight the surge. How can we say everyday that we are fighting this virus and we don’t have the know the numbers of ventilators, test kits, and most importantly the first responders protection kits. We want to hear of or see Cargo planes landing with the tools to fight the virus not all this talk in the media about only policies of containment.

The Chairman said that the provision of food, the total lock down and the other policy announcements of the Sanwo- Olu led administration are not enough to take care of the treatment and containment of the affected patients. Lagosians need to know what government is doing to scale up operations for when patients grow exponentially to very 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.

Doherty stated that 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. The tools for achieving these four important criteria’s so that they crystallise into results is what Lagosians need to know in other to be assured of their safety.

Doherty said “You can only provide palliatives for the living and not the dead.

He said that the government also needs to work with the telecommunications service providers and the CNN so that they can gain access to records in other to effectively track people who may have contracted the virus.

Doherty , also advised the Governor to build a database and a statistical digital bank of the step by step experience of this crisis till it ends as a lesson learned action in case such an event reoccurs in the future.

The PDP State Chairman pleaded with the general public to kindly adhere to the social distancing and lockdown orders and warned that the Pandemic was still far from reaching its peak in Nigeria especially in Lagos.