COVID-19: Tougher days as 36 states agree on 14 more days lockdown

By Ezurike Ugochukwu

As the four weeks lockdown of Lagos, Ogun and the Federal, Capital Territory(FCT), is about to be concluded on Monday, the 36 State governors of the federation have agreed to the implementation of an inter-State lockdown in the country over the next two weeks.

This development is aimed at  mitigating the spread of COVID-19.pandemic from state of the federation, even as many Nigerians have turned to beggers as a result of the various forms of lockdown in virtually all the states in the southern part of the country.

Governors

Operating under the aegis of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), the 36 governors after receiving briefing from the Governors of Lagos, Bauchi, Oyo and Ogun States who shared their experiences and lessons from the fight against COVID-19  unanimously agreed on Wednesday to the decision.

The governors called for the decentralization of the COVID-19 response as the best chance of flattening the curve in the spread of the virus in communities with over 25 States now affected by the spread of the virus and increasing evidence of community transmission.

In a communiqe issued by the NGF chairman and governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, at the end of the sixth COVID-19 teleconference meeting maintained that during the proposed lockdown, only those in essential services would be permitted to move around.

The governors further expressed serious concern over the rising spread of the virus among health workers and resolved to work with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to ensure that health workers are properly provided with personal protective equipment (PPE) and are “constantly” trained on the use of protective wares.

1in order to strengthen coordinated implementation of necessary public health recommendations across States, the  governors resolved to set up COVID-19 committees at the regional level, headed by their State Commissioners of Health.

The communique further added that  regional committees,  will continue to interface with the State Task Force Committees on COVID-19 already established in each State.

Governor Fayemi briefed the forum on the rapidly evolving situation of the COVID-19 pandemic and coordination efforts with the federal government, bilateral and multilateral  partners, and the private sector through the Coalition against COVID-19 (CACOVID).

The forum held a minute’s silence in honour of all Nigerians who had lost their lives from coronavirus, especially health workers who were in the front lines of the epidemic.

The forum congratulated one of them, Nasir El-Rufai, of Kaduna State, who after nearly four weeks of testing positive and observing very strict medical regime, has now received two consecutive negative test results for COVID-19.

President Buhari on teleconference with governors

They further conveyed their condolence to President Muhammadu Buhari and the people of Borno State on the passing of the Chief of Staff to the President, Malam Abba Kyari, who passed away on April 17, 2020 in the line of duty to the country.

It would be recalled that President Buhari currently imposed lockdown in only the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Lagos and Ogun States to halt the spread of the novel pandemic coronavirus.

In order to contain the spread of the virus, most states including those without  any confirmed case of the virus  had imposed one form of movement restriction or the order in their state, this new development will no doubt, go a long way to strengthen their effort  at containing  the spread  of the  pandemic  in the country