COVID-19: Why FG May Lockdown Lagos, Abuja, Plateau

The Federal Government is mulling imposing targetted lockdown in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, Lagos and Plateau State over the rising cases of COVID-19 in the three urban areas.

Naija News reports that this was made known on Friday by the PTF National Incident Manager, Mukhtar Muhammed.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme, Muhammed expressed concerns over the rising cases of the virus in the three states.

He 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.

Asked of the possibility of a targeted lockdown, 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.”