Covid-19: Abia Considers Fresh Lockdown Following Failure To Observe Safety Protocols

The Abia State governor, Chief Okezie Ikpeazu, has threatened to lockdown the state for a second time following failures of residents of the state to observe the safety measures in curtailing the spread of Covid-19.

Chief Ikpeazu stated this, Monday, at the flag-off of massive community sample collection and testing for Covid-19 in the state. The governor, represented by Barr Chris Ezem, the chairman of Abia State Inter-ministerial Committee on Covid-19 and secretary to the State Government, said unless residents desist from flouting guidelines, the state would have no option than to lock down the state within the next 14 days.

He said, “You can see that even with all the guidelines we are rolling out, a wedding took place somewhere around Isuikwuato, and we had over 500 people at that wedding. People attend public gatherings: you sit at receptions, you sit at burials, you don’t even know the status of the person sitting next to you. This pandemic is real; this virus is everywhere. We are in the stage of community transmission.”

While reinstating the commitment of his government towards fighting the pandemic to a standstill, the governor added that, “We need your collective support in maintaining those protocols and guidelines. If people don’t maintain the protocols, we will lockdown on burials and weddings and will not reopen it in the next shortest possible time. Where do you maintain social distancing if you have three people in that Keke; where do you observe social distance if you have more than five passengers in a mini-bus?”

He appealed to traditional leaders and community leaders to ensure that people within their domains obeyed government protocols, stating that the essence of the massive community sample collection and testing for Covid-19 in the state was to break the chain of transmission which was now at community transmission stage by identifying infected persons and nursing them back to good health.

The chairman of Umuahia South Transition Committee, Dr Max Adindu, during the event, said massive community testing ‘is yet another manifestation of the rare leadership qualities of a responsive and caring governor’, while urging the people of the local government to voluntarily embrace the exercise.

The event witnessed the collection of samples of many people, including the chairman of Umuahia South Traditional Rulers Council, Eze Stephen Ihuoma.