The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 on Monday disclosed that Eighteen endemic councils across the nation, accounting for 60 percent of COVID-19 cases, are facing imminent lockdown.
It however added that the state government and local authorities where the councils are located, will administer the lockdown.
Chairman of PTF Boss Mustapha who spoke at a news conference after briefing President Muhammadu Buhari at the end of the four-week gradual easing of lockdown, said: “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.”
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Mustapha was accompanied to brief the President by Minister of Health Dr. Osagie Ehanire, Coordinator of the PTF Dr Sani Aliyu and Director General of the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu.
Dr Sani, explaining further on the precision lockdown, said: “Some of these local government areas have issues to do with their location and the fact that they do not have defined borders. We will be sending out clarification as soon as we finish this piece of work.
“The restrictions of movement in these local government areas are 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 draining economically for us.”
Although, the 18 local government areas were not mentioned, NCDC on June 2, published a list of 20 local government areas where the virus spread is prevalent from a report.
According to the report, Lagos, which remains the epicentre of COVID-19 in Nigeria, has 11 out of the top 20 local government areas with confirmed cases of COVID-19.
The NCDC record shows that Lagos Mainland council has the highest number (1,274) of COVID-19 cases in Nigeria. Other local government areas in the state with high cases of COVID-19 are; Mushin (458), Eti-Osa (403), Alimosho (239), Kosofe (175), Ikeja (168), Oshodi/Isolo (132), Apapa (131), Amuwo Odofin (129), Lagos Island (111) and Surulere (110). In the FCT, Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) had 536 cases to make the top 20 list while Tarauni in Kano State had 248.
Other top councils are; Katsina local government area in Katsina State (242), Maiduguri local government area in Borno State (167), Dutse local government area in Jigawa State (170), Nassarawa local government area in Kano state (152), Oredo in Edo State (126), Bauchi local government area in Bauchi State (114), and Ado Odo/Ota in Ogun State (107).
