Lagos Grapples With Covid-19, Eviction of Settlement Dwellers
The number of people testing positive for the novel coronavirus has risen sharply in Lagos. The increasing number of active cases from less than 2,000 in June 2021 to the current 70, 845 cases, have been linked to the Delta variant which has been described as the most transmissible.
Lagos Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has said that the third wave of the pandemic is apparently taking its toll on the country's commercial nerve centre. According to the governor, since the third wave was declared, a total of 135 deaths were recorded in Lagos, with patients using as many as 400 cylinders of oxygen per day. Sanwo-Olu said the state would be ramping up its oxygen plants in the coming days, as he projected that the demand for oxygen may shoot up in the next few weeks. The governor said that the situation called for "more responsibility". Residents are being urged to adhere to preventive protocols put in place by the government.
There are over 100 informal settlements in Lagos. Many of the 100,000 Chibok people living in Lagos came from IDP camps in northern Nigeria after fleeing the Boko Haram insurgency. The pandemic has made their situation far worse. Many informal dwellers were forced to beg in wealthy neighbourhoods just to survive - risking arrest for breaking the lockdown rules, write Taibat Lawanson and Rebecca Enobong Roberts for The Conversation.
-
Nigeria:
Displaced Within a City - Covid-19 and Repeat Evictions in Lagos' Slums
Thomson Reuters Foundation, 23 August 2021
There are over 100 slum and squatter settlements in Nigeria's largest city Lagos. We visited five such communities as part of a Prindex study on land and housing rights, speaking… Read more »
-
Nigeria:
Covid-19 - Lagos Uses 400 Oxygen Cylinders Per Day for Severe Cases - Sanwo-Olu
Premium Times, 23 August 2021
The 400 oxygen cylinders daily was an increase over the 75 cylinders utilised daily as of the beginning of the third wave of the virus in Lagos. Read more »
-
Nigeria:
Covid-19 - Concerns As Lagos Records 135 Deaths in Third Wave
This Day, 24 August 2021
As concerns mount over the increasing number of COVID-19 cases, in the third wave of the virus, Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, yesterday confirmed that the state had… Read more »
-
Nigeria:
Covid-19 - Nigeria Records Eight Deaths, 565 New Cases Monday
Premium Times, 24 August 2021
The increasing number of the active cases from less than 2,000 in June has been linked to the Delta variant which has been described as the most transmissible variant of the… Read more »
-
Nigeria:
Lagos Resumes Covid-19 Vaccination Wednesday - Sanwo-Olu
Premium Times, 23 August 2021
The governor said the Moderna vaccine should not be mixed with AstraZeneca. Read more »
InFocus
-
Amid the imminent third wave of the novel coronavirus pandemic and the recent outbreak of cholera in more than 13 states, Nigerian doctors have begun nationwide industrial action. ... Read more »
-
The government has put six states on "red alert" after seeing a rise in Covid-19 infections. The head of the presidential steering committee on Covid-19, Boss Mustapha, said Lagos, ... Read more »
Dwellings on the shores of the Lagos Lagoon (file photo).