COVID-19 Presidential Task Force (PTF)recommended FG for Complete Lockdown Over COVID-19 Second Wave for Abuja, Lagos and Plateau States.
NIAJ LIVE TV notes that a targeted lockdown in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, as well as Lagos and Plateau States was recommended by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19.
NAIJA LIVE TV understands that Mukhtar Muhammed, the PTF National Incident Manager, who said this on Friday, described the increasing cases of Covid infections recorded in the three urban areas as worrying.
Muhammed said data showed that in the middle of the second wave of the pandemic in Nigeria, urban local governments in the affected locations reported the highest cases of Covid. Lagos (46,935 cases), Abuja (16,470 cases), Plateau (7,801) have reported the highest number of Covid infections and fatalities in Nigeria in the last eleven months, according to data from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.
Speaking on the Sunrise Regular program of Channels Television, observed by NewsOnline Nigeria, the PTF official said the Federal Government wants to continue economic activities, but these activities must be monitored.
When asked about the possibility of a targeted lockdown and not a complete lockdown based on hotspot area data, Muhammed said, “That’s exactly what we did, we analyzed the data and looked at the most affected geographical areas and different age groups.”
Certainly, it is not going to be a complete lockdown, even though we are going to have a lockdown. We analyzed the details a few weeks ago and identified the local government areas of the hotspot.
In Lagos, Abuja, Kaduna, Plateau, the urban local governments are mainly the areas affected. It is the urban areas which are involved even in most other nations. So, if we’re going to have any limitations, it’s going to be in those places.
The most impacted are metropolitan areas and that’s why we have these superspreaders and that’s where we’re going to target them. On the basis of the data, we have analyzed this and we advise the states that these are the concentrated areas where these transmissions are more than the others,” he added.
WeetalknaijaBlog recalls that Abuja Lagos and Ogun were locked down by the Federal Government in March 2020 for more than five weeks as part of the steps to curb the spread of COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic.
With the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry putting the loss at around N3bn during the time under study, the lockdown had a profound impact on economic activities.
Many jobs were also lost due to the crippling impact of the lockdown, as airlines, hotels, banks, among others, cut their workforce.
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