The Rivers State COVID-19 Inter-ministerial Committee on Enlightenment on Saturday took the compliance inspection to some major supermarkets known to attract relatively high patronage by the public.
The essence was to ascertain their level of compliance to the state government’s directives on measures aimed at preventing Coronavirus spread in Rivers State.
Speaking at the end of the inspection, Commissioner for Chieftaincy and Community Affairs, Olisaelloka Tasie-Amadi, who led the team, stated that at various levels, all of the supermarkets visited showed awareness of the need to prevent the Coronavirus pandemic.
The issue, according to him, was in terms of compliance to preventive measures as advocated by the committee since it commenced duty last month.
Tasie-Amadi said: “We are here for two reasons, mainly, primary enlightenment. We thank God for where we are today in Rivers State on the COVID-19 crises situation, but we need to also see that we maintain certain protocols to ensure that if anybody has the virus, or if anybody comes in with the virus, or there is a virus anywhere, it does not spread.”
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He explained that beyond the emphasis on regular washing of hands and using hand sanitiser, such businesses that attract high patronage from the public as supermarkets, need to be enlightened enough to be in good stead to take more precautionary measures.
Tasie-Amadi said: “It’s not enough to sanitise to protect yourself, you need to wear a mask to protect every other person. So, that one is a duty we want to enforce.”
According to him, in addition to staff of supermarkets wearing face masks, the managements should also ensure that they instill in customers the need for them to also wear face masks when shopping.
Commissioner for Youths, Prince Ohia Obi, echoed the same sentiments, saying the necessity of shoppers and sellers wearing the mask would not affect businesses negatively, but would become a trend.
