The Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 is considering targeted lockdown in some selected State including the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja; as well as Lagos and Plateau States. PTF National Incident Manager, Mukhtar Muhammed, who stated this on Friday as a guest on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, described as alarming, the rising cases of Covid infections recorded in the three urban areas.
Muhammed stated that available data showed rapid growth in the number of cases of coronavirus in the urban areas of the aforementioned States amid the second wave of the pandemic in the country. 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.
The PTF official said the Federal Government wants economic activities to continue but these activities must be in a regulated fashion. When asked about 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 analyzing 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 analyzed 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 restrictions, 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 analyzed 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.
