The federal government yesterday imposed what it called precision lockdown on 18 local government areas hosting 60 per cent of cases of COVID-19 in the country.
The chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, Mr. Boss Mustapha stated this at a news conference after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at Aso Villa.
Although Mustapha did not name the affected area council, it would be recalled that the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) had earlier in the month named 20 councils with 60 per cent cases of the virus.
The councils are Mainland (1,274), Abuja Municipal (536), Mushin (458), Eti-Osa (403), Tarauni (248), Katsina (242), Alimosho (239), Maiduguri (167), Kosofe (175), Dutse (170), Ikeja (168), Nassarawa (152), Oshodi/Isolo (132), Apapa (131), Amuwo Odofin (129), Oredo (126), Bauchi (114), Lagos Island (111), Surulere (110) and Ado Odo/Ota (107).
Mustapha however said the state government and local authorities where the councils are located will administer the lockdown.
“For the precision lockdown, we have identified 18 local governments out of the 774 local government that are considered to be high burden with this infection and they account for 60 per cent of 24, 077 infections.
“The reason for the precision lockdown is to place specific measures that will be administered by state governments and local authorities. It is not for the federal government, it’s the responsibilities of states and local authorities,” he said.
Expatiating more on the precision lockdown, the coordinator of the PTF, Dr Sani Aliyu said some of the 18 local government areas do not have defined borders.
“We will be sending out clarification as soon as we finish this piece of work.
“The restriction of movement in these local government areas is only one of several interventions we are putting in place in terms of the hotspots.
“There will be precision targeting in these areas not only to increase testing but also to improve isolation, to make sure that we do a lot of risk communication and public awareness activities.
“So, cessation of movement is only part of it. And in some of the local governments, it may be impracticable to do so. We already know some local government where it may be impossible to do this.
“Overall, what we are trying to do is to put out the small fires across the country rather than trying to fight raging fire across the whole country which will be very difficult and will also be damaging economically for us.
“For those areas that we know have high burdens, that the numbers are increasing rapidly, where we have high positivity rate, we will be introducing specific precision measures working with the state governments to make sure that we get on top of this.
“This will be a job that will continue to review regularly. We expect some local government areas to drop after the interventions and some to be added,” said Aliyu.
Aliyu also stated that at the PTF might be forced to review some of the new measures should the pandemic continued to increase.
