Lagos State Government, yesterday, said it has commenced the prosecution of inbound international passengers who fail to submit themselves for Day 2 and Day 7 PCR tests, as mandated by the Federal Government COVID-19 protocols and guidelines.
The state government also disclosed that from its data analysis, only 20 percent of inbound passengers, who pay for the COVID-19 PCR tests before arriving in Lagos, submitted themselves for the tests.
In a statement, the Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, said: “Lagos State Government is concerned with the dramatic rise in cases seen in the evolving fourth wave.
“Identifying that our previous waves are associated with non-compliance of inbound passengers with the testing guidelines, we have commenced prosecution of inbound international passengers who fail to submit themselves for Day 2 and Day 7 PCR tests, as mandated by the Federal COVID-19 protocols and guidelines.
In addition, unvaccinated inbound passengers and anyone testing positive for COVID-19 are mandated to self-isolate at home for seven days. We will sanction anyone found disregarding these guidelines, which are designed to minimize the community transmission of COVID and its variants.”
Abayomi said the state government has started contacting the defaulting passengers and patients for arraignment before a mobile court for special offenses.
He said: “From our data analysis, we discovered that only about 20 percent of inbound passengers, who pay for the COVID-19 PCR tests before they arrive in Lagos, submit themselves for the tests on a required day at our designated laboratories. Our data also shows that a significant number of inbound passengers who do the tests on the designated days are testing positive and if they don’t self-isolate they pose a serious threat to the state’s ability to manage the fourth wave.
To protect the rest of our citizens from this irresponsible behavior, the Lagos State Government is taking some decisive actions”.
