FG May Announce Nationwide Lockdown Over COVID-19 Second-Wave

The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 has warned that the federal government may be forced imposed another nationwide lockdown over the second-wave of the deadly virus.

Speaking on a television programme on Sunday, the National Coordinator of the PTF, Dr Sani Aliyu, lamented that despite the deadly nature of the second-wave Nigerians have refused to adhere to safety protocols.

He said: “If you don’t want a lockdown, the only way is to make sure we use our facemasks, avoid mass gatherings, avoid people who have respiratory tract infections, sanitise our hands and follow those non-pharmaceutical interventions.

“The very vaccines that we currently have are those non-pharmaceutical interventions.

“If numbers continue to go up, all options are on the table. There are countries in the world that have been able to control this pandemic simply by following these non-pharmaceutical interventions. They may be inconvenient, but they will not be as difficult as a lockdown”.

Aliyu said cases were multiplying in recent weeks, adding that 33 people died of COVID-19 in the last one week.

The PTF coordinator also attacked individuals and cleric saying that COVID-19 doesn’t exist, saying people with such thinking are probably living in a completely different world.

He said: “I’m sure most of those who have been following the numbers will realise that what we have now far exceeds what we had in June/July last year.

“In week 52, which is the week we’ve just finished, we’ve seen a tripling in weekly number of cases, compared to what we had three weeks ago. The 6,000 cases per week is really huge. Our hospitals are already starting to get overloaded and we are already starting to feel the pressure within the healthcare system.

“So, talking about the projection, the projection really depends on whether people will start taking this very seriously and start following those non-pharmaceutical interventions that we’ve been talking about for the last one year.”