Officials of the Lagos State Government have inspected facilities at the Synagogue Church of All Nations for COVID safety and prevention protocols compliance as the church gears up for the funeral of its late founder Prophet T.B. Joshua.
Commissioner for health Prof. Akin Abayomi led the delegation which included the director-general of the Lagos State Safety Commission, Lanre Mojola.
The state is expecting an influx of visitors for the funeral. Joshua had a reputation for attracting foreigners in search of miracles.
After the inspection and meeting with the church’s officials on Saturday, Abayomi said the government is taking the week-long funeral as a high priority event to ensure there is no importation of Covid-19 variants amid fears of a third wave.
He said, “On behalf of the Lagos State Government we want to offer our deep condolences to the family of the prophet and members of the congregation. In these very precarious times that we are in, with a global pandemic that is evolving dynamically; what we now know is that there are different strains of the virus circulating around the world, and Lagos State has a very strong third wave prevention strategy.
“The likely cause of a third wave is going to be an importation from visitors who are infected with the virus, so we are particularly careful about working with the Synagogue to make sure that we have a collaboration that will reduce the opportunity to zero of us either importing a virus or even allowing someone who is positive to interact with the community.
“So we have had series of engagements with the officials and executive of SCOAN, we are also in touch with the Federal Government; the Presidential Steering Committee, and the Federal Ministry of Health.
“And the Incident Commander, Governor has said that this a priority event and we have to ensure that we give SCOAN all the support it requires to make sure that the series of planned events for the funeral scheduled between the 5th of July to the 11th of July are performed under the strictness guidelines to limit any possibilities of introduction of foreign COVID variants amongst the congregation or the movement of the virus in such an environment that would make transmission easier.”
The commissioner added that COVID-19 prevention protocols will be heightened at the nation’s borders and airports and that visitors must self-isolate for seven days on arrival and be tested afterwards.
