FG May Lock Down Local Governments Areas With High COVID-19 Prevalence – PTF Coordinator

The National Coordinator of the Presidential taskforce (PTF) on COVID-19, Sani Aliyu, has said the taskforce was considering locking down local government areas with high incidence of the virus.

Aliyu stated this on Thursday during the taskforce briefing on COVID-19, while responding to a question on what the taskforce was doing about high risk local governments.

He also said there would be more community engagements and risks mobilisation within the communities.

“Moving forward, key strategies for areas with high prevalence is definitely to look at greater community engagement and risks mobilisation within these communities. We will be engaging in very high level public awareness campaigns. We will also be pushing for increased testing, making testing more available and accessible within the local governments. In addition to these, we have a proposal that is currently going through within the single basket fund towards setting up community isolation centres that will be around these local government areas.

“We’ll also be exploring the possibility of locking down the areas with high incidence, what we call precision lock downs. But this has to be linked with the provision of palliatives. It’s much easier to lockdown a small part or area of the country than try locking down a state or regions, but we’re still working on it, but at some stages, we hope to implement some aspects of it,” he said.

He said people with disability may have difficulty accessing care and information

“Disability alone may not be related to a higher risk of COVID-19 or severity of the illness, but nevertheless, people who are disabled may have more difficulty accessing care and information and how they can protect themselves.”

Furthermore, he said the NYSC scheme would have to abide by the guidelines with regards to stopping the transmission of COVID-19.