The National Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Dr Sani Aliyu, gave the warning in Abuja at the 27th joint national briefing that there might be a new lockdown in the country due to the violation of the guidelines on the eased lockdown
Aliyu said: “While we allowed the relaxation of the lockdown, we are putting measures in place to curb COVID-19 spread. Our modelling shows that the positive effects of full compliance with the Eased lockdown will be very similar to the effect of a full lockdown.”
“This is why we need everyone to fully comply with all the guidelines issued. Please respect and follow all the guidelines we have instituted. If we continue to see violations of these guidelines, we will be pushed to review and possibly change them.”
The Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, said: “Those who tested positive and were in isolation centres had not committed any crime, thus were not being held in prison.We really want to work together with everyone to ensure that we all achieve our goals. The security in treatment and isolation centres is the same thing like any other established organisation as security is the responsibility of the police working with the state governments in that particular place.”
Ihekweazu said: “In certain circumstances, the states have had to increase the security in those facilities. In honesty, we don’t want to ‘securitize’ this response. We want people and organisations to take responsibilities.”
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, said: “The second batch of Nigerians returning from the United Kingdom were expected to land at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, today and would be taken to Abuja where they would be isolated in a hotel.”
According to Onyeama, Abuja hotel is the preferable option to isolate the returnees as the hotel rate is better compared to Lagos.He said arrangements would be made for those meant to be in Lagos to return back to Lagos afterwards.
Onyeama said: “It’s a learning curve for all of us. So, we’re very happy that we’ve been able to get the first batch of Nigerians successfully back home. We’ll like to congratulate those passengers and thank them because really they comported themselves admirably and went to the hotels they’re meant to go to for isolation. The conditions are difficult,14 days in confinement is not easy.”