With Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) reporting a total of 1,114 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 infections and 27 deaths in across the country on Friday, the Federal Government on Friday expressed serries worries over the growing wave of reported cases in parts of key cities, including Lagos, Kaduna, Plateau and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
In the latest statistics on the prevalence of the pandemic, the NCDC said on its official website on Friday that the total of all confirmed cases of the infections to date across the country stood at about 128,674, with about 1,577 deaths recorded, and about 102,780 people discharged in the 36 states and Abuja. Active cases have been put at about 24,317.
Details of the new cases reported on Friday from 22 states and the FCT showed that Lagos recorded 408 cases, FCT (95), Plateau (90), Ondo (66), Kaduna (63), Oyo (56), Borno (46), Imo (42), Edo (41), Ogun (37), Rivers (31), Ekiti (25), Yobe (20), Kano (18), Akwa Ibom (18), Delta (15), Osun (15), Kwara (11), Bayelsa (6), Nasarawa (6), Zamfara (4) and Bauchi (1).
Consequently, the government says it was monitoring closely the situation in some parts of Lagos, Abuja, Kaduna, Plateau and other cities, whose prevalence is considered concerning.
The National Incident Manager of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Mukhtar Muhammad, said in an interview with Channels Television on Friday, said although the Federal Government was resisting the temptation to impose fresh lockdown across the country, it may be considering doing so in some hotspots.
Mr Muhammad said the hotspots include those places in some urban areas and local governments in Lagos, Abuja and Abuja with a high prevalence of COVID-19 cases.
“Certainly, even if we are going to have a lockdown, it is not going to be a total lockdown as the government has already spoken on that.
“A couple of weeks back, we analyzed the data of reported cases and we identified the hotspot local government areas most affected are the urban local governments in Lagos, Abuja, Kaduna, Plateau where we have the super-spreaders. That is where we are going to target if we are to impose another lockdown.
“We have analyzed the data and we are advising the states based on the data that these are the focused areas where these transmissions are more than the others.”
