The Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 is considering
targeted lockdown in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja; as well as Lagos and
Plateau States.
PTF National Incident Manager, Mukhtar Muhammed, who stated
this on Friday, described as alarming, the rising cases of Covid infections
recorded in the three urban areas.
Muhammed said data showed that urban local governments in
the affected places recorded the highest cases of Covid amid the second wave of
the pandemic in Nigeria. According to data by the Nigeria Centre for Disease
Control, Lagos (46,935 cases), Abuja (16,470 cases), Plateau (7,801) have
recorded the highest number of Covid infections and fatalities in Nigeria in
the last eleven months.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme, the PTF official said the Federal Government wants
economic activities to continue but these activities must be in a regulated
fashion.
When asked of the possibility of a targeted lockdown and not
a total lockdown based on data of hotspot areas, Muhammed said, “That is
exactly what we did, we have been analysing the data and we have been looking
at the geographical areas that have been most affected and the different age
groups.”
“Certainly, even if we are going to have a lockdown, it is
not going to be a total lockdown. A couple of weeks back, we analysed the data
and we identified the hotspot local government areas.
“Mostly, the areas affected are the urban local governments
in Lagos, Abuja, Kaduna, Plateau. Even in most other states, it is the urban
areas that are involved. So, if we are going to have any restriction, it will
be in these areas.
“The urban areas are the most affected and that is why we
have these superspreaders and that is where we are going to target. We have
analysed that and we are advising the states based on the data that these are
the focused areas where these transmissions are more than the others,” he
added.
The Federal Government
in March 2020 locked down Abuja Lagos and Ogun for over five weeks as part of
measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic.
The lockdown had a tremendous effect on economic activities
with the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry putting the loss at about N3bn
in the period under review.
Many jobs were also lost as airlines, hotels, banks, amongst
others cut their workforce due to the crushing effect of the lockdown.
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