President Muhammadu Buhari has extended the ongoing lockdown over the COVID-19 by another two weeks in order to check the spread of the virus.
In a nationwide broadcast on Monday, President Buhari said “it has become necessary to extend the current restriction of movement in Lagos and Ogun States as well as the FCT of Abuja for another 14 days effective from 11:59 pm on Monday, 13th of April, 2020. I am therefore once again asking you all to work with government in this fight.
“This is a difficult decision to take, but I am convinced that this is the right decision. The evidence is clear.”
He recalled that in his address on Sunday, March 29, 2020, he asked the residents of Lagos and Ogun States as well as the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja to stay at home for an initial period of 14 days starting from Monday, 30th March 2020 and that many state governments have also introduced similar restrictions.
“This morning, Nigeria had 323 confirmed cases in twenty States. Unfortunately we now have ten fatalities. Lagos State remains the centre and accounts for 54% of the confirmed cases in Nigeria. When combined with the FCT, the two locations represent over 71% of the confirmed cases in Nigeria.
“To date, we have identified 92% of all identified contacts, while doubling the number of testing laboratories in the country and raising our testing capacity to 1,500 tests per day. We also trained over 7,000 Healthcare workers on infection prevention and control while deploying NCDC teams to 19 states of the federation.
He announced that six ministers had been directed to jointly develop a comprehensive policy for the Nigerian economy to function with COVID-19.
He directed that the current social register be expanded from 2.6 million households to 3.6 million households in the next two weeks in order to support additional one million homes with the social investment programmes.
“As your democratically elected leaders, we made this very difficult decision knowing fully well it will severely disrupt your livelihoods and bring undue hardship to you, your loved ones and your communities,” he said.
GIK/APA