FG Reveals When It Will Impose Fresh Nationwide COVID-19 Lockdown

The President Muhammadu Buhari-led government has said it will impose a fresh nationwide lockdown if the rising cases of COVID-19 infections recorded lately continue.

Naija News reports that this was made known by the National Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Sani Aliyu, during a briefing in Abuja.

According to the PTF Coordinator,  the rising coronavirus infections recorded of recent in the country may force the federal government to declare a new lockdown.

Sani Aliyu noted that the government is very concerned over the spread of the deadly virus.

“If these numbers continue to go up and we start having significant deaths, we will have no option. If we do not want to lock down, now is the time to make sure that we follow the non-pharmaceutical interventions,” he said.

Speaking earlier, the PTF Chairman and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, said, “The Presidential Task Force is very concerned about the increasing daily numbers that we are recording.

“On 6th of January 2021, we recorded 1,664 infections. This is yet another all-time high in Nigerian and we must all take full responsibility through compliance and vigilance.”

Naija News reports that the Nigeria Centre For Disease Control (NCDC) on Thursday night reported 1565 new cases of COVID-19 in Nigeria.

The newly reported cases bring the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Nigeria to 95,934 which includes 77,982 discharged cases and 1,330 deaths.

Below is the breakdown of the latest cases according to states with Lagos State having the highest number of cases followed by Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Lagos-807 FCT-236 Kaduna-79 Oyo-57 Plateau-47 Rivers-37 Katsina-35 Edo-30 Sokoto-30 Delta-26 Kebbi-23 Ondo-20 Enugu-18 Abia-17 Ogun-17 Benue-16 Bayelsa-15 Bauchi-14 Niger-13 Kano-10 Borno-6 Imo-5 Ekiti-4 Osun-2 Jigawa-1