Lockdown: We can’t reopen Nigerian back to usual pattern, NCDC

By Ezurike Ugochukwu

Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, Director-General , Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), has reminded Nigerians not to expect that they would go back to their former ways of doing things when the lockdown is over.

He maintained that if Nigerians eventually return to the pre-COVID-19 lifestyle, there would be an immediately huge resurgence of the infection in the country which is what everyone is running away from.

Ihekweazu, who made the clarification while speaking as a guest at a radio programme in Lagos on Monday, advised business owners to adjust their business models such that it will comply to social distancing and reduce the level of interaction among people.

He stressed that Nigerians must continue to adhere to precautionary measures of basic hygiene, respiratory etiquette and use of sanitisers.

The DG said, “If I were any small or big business or anything that involves interaction, I will be carefully thinking about my business model and how to adjust them to some extent.

“If I were managing a school, I will think about my break period. Do I really want to have one break period where I unleash the entire school population onto the playground? Or do I want to have a standard break period where you allow a few people out at hourly interval?

“If I were running a restaurant that has a capacity for 100, I will be thinking of how to sustain that restaurant on 40 people to enable some social distancing. These are some of the processes we all need to think about in order to reopen and go back to normal.

Reacting over the unrest in some parts of the country brought about by hardship as a result of the lockdown and the possibility of extending the lockdown, Ihekweazu said the next 10 days will give appriciable room to the agency to make substantial headway.

He said, “We will work extremely hard over the next 10 days to make the best use of the opportunity which is probably the last window of opportunity we have to make some progress with the response.”

He said the commission is working hard to open up some parts of the nation’s economy so that they could start working, stressing, they are not unmindful of the hard times Nigerians are going through, they are in a hurry to produce results.