Delta State government has warned residents, especially business operators, against attending to customers who are not putting on face masks.
The government said such residents would be sent to isolation centres and their business centres permanently shut if found to be attending to customers not wearing face masks.
Governor Ifeanyi Okowa had last week partially relaxed total lockdown of the state in view of the COVID-19 scourge, with a caveat that residents must wear facemasks if they want to appear in public.
Addressing journalists in Asaba after a meeting of the state’s Technical Committee on the Prevention of COVID-19 on Monday evening, Commissioner for Information, Mr. Charles Aniagwu, further stressed the need for people to put on face masks in public.
“What we have observed is that some individuals wear face masks and drag it to cover their beards and chin, exposing the mouth and nose. Government is saying that anybody wearing it like that is deemed not to be wearing it at all.
READ ALSO: COVID-19: Delta To Make Face Masks Compulsory For Residents
“And anybody not wearing it in public, security agents have been directed to take such persons straight to the isolation centre because if you are not wearing it, it means you have the virus and you want to spread it to others,” Aniagwu said.
He said wearing facemasks did not take the place of social distancing, saying that residents must be conscious that the next person might be a carrier of the disease.
According to him, commercial vehicle operators who convey any passenger not wearing facemask would have his vehicle impounded, while the defaulting passenger would be forced to isolation centre.
He said it was not only government that would enforce the use of facemasks, but that every business operator and commercial vehicle operator who wished to remain in business should enforce it.