Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has announced that worship centres in the state will be opened from Friday, August 7.
Sanwo-Olu made the announcement on Saturday at a press conference, where he gave updates on how the state is managing the coronavirus pandemic.
“Places of worship in Lagos will now be opened from Friday, the 7th of August for our Muslim worshippers and on Sunday, the 9th of August for our Christian worshippers,” Sanwo-Olu said.
As part of measures to curb the spread of coronavirus, worship centres and other social gatherings were banned in the state since March.
Although the Presidential Task Force on Covid-19 had approved the reopening of churches and mosques in the country, the Lagos State government had kept the centres shut as it is the epicentre of COVID-19 in Nigeria.
Sanwo-Olu stated that places of worship are to have their “regular once a week service at designated days. For the avoidance of doubt, there will be Friday worships for our Muslim followers and Sunday worships for our Christian followers.
“In addition, the following conditions must also be fully met by all our religious centres; regular gatherings are permitted to hold but vigils and other services should still be on hold for now.
“We will monitor this for the next couple of weeks and see how the observation and compliance get as we move along. They are encouraged to have multiple services on those days but they should restrict it to those designated days of worship.”
The governor also announced that the gatherings should not exceed 50 persons – an increase from the previous announcement of 20 people limit per social gathering.
While the government is gradually easing the lockdown, Sanwo-Olu, however, said that persons of 65 years old and above are advised to stay at home.
“We recommend and seriously appeal to our senior citizens – if you are aged 65 and above, you are still strongly advised not to attend these places of worship. Please stay back at home.”
The governor also stated that restaurants, social clubs who have met the conditions are permitted to open from Friday, August 14 for in-dinning while night clubs remained unopened.
As at Saturday, Lagos State has 15,186 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 12,846 active cases, 2,148 discharged and 192 deaths recorded.
