The federal government on Thursday tightened restrictions on places of worship, airports and bars to try and protect its population against the COVID-19 coronavirus, warning the nation’s estimated 190 million people could soon witnessed an “exponential” increase in coronavirus infections unless contacts of confirmed cases are tracked down quicker. So far 65 infections and one death have been recorded, but testing has been limited.
“We have 4,370 people of interest whom we are tracing. We urge those who have had contact with suspected cases to immediately report to the authorities. We urge Nigerians to support the authorities in this regard,” Information Minister Lai Mohammed said, adding: “We are on the verge of reaching the level of community spread. We must stop this immediately or we will record exponential cases in the days ahead.”
Experts have cautioned that Nigeria is highly vulnerable to the spread of the disease given its weak healthcare system and high population density. The government has taken a raft of measures to try to curb the virus including closing airports and land borders, shuttering schools and telling people to stay home in key cities. The vast majority of confirmed infections so far have been from people coming to Nigeria from abroad, but officials in Lagos have already recorded some local transmission of the disease.
In Lagos state, Abuja and Ogun, churches, mosques, social gatherings, football viewing centers and night clubs must restrict attendance to 50 people, according to new regulations drawn up by the Presidential Task Force on the COVID-19 coronavirus. President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the immediate release of a 10 billion Naira grant to Lagos State. Buhari said the grant will enable the state to increase its capacity to control and contain the outbreak, while also supporting other States with capacity-building. Nigeria, as at 9:20 pm on Thursday has 65 confirmed cases of coronavirus, 44 of which were recorded in Lagos. “Lagos State…remains the epicenter of the Covid-19 outbreak in Nigeria,” Buhari said on Thursday evening.
Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta on Thursday directed the shutdown of Asaba Airport to traffic for two weeks, starting from 6 pm. on Friday. Okowa, who gave the directive in his third statewide broadcast on coronavirus pandemic on Thursday, also ordered the closure of the land borders to the state from 6 pm. on March 29. “Although there has been no confirmed case in Delta, we deem it fit to take further measures to avert any outbreak or contain its spread if it occurs. Consequently, after a meeting with the Central Committee on Managing and Containing Coronavirus Pandemic headed by me, several far-reaching decisions were reached. “I hereby order as follows: Asaba Airport is to close to traffic effective from Friday, March 27, 2020 by 6 pm. All land borders into and out of Delta are to be shut effective 6 a.m., Sunday, March 29, 2020. All business malls, supermarkets, markets and shops are to close from Wednesday, April 1, 2020.”
The Kaduna state government Thursday announced a 24-hour curfew until further notice as parts of the measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus to the state. The state deputy governor, Hadiza Balarabe said in a broadcast that from midnight on Thursday, residents are to stay inside their homes from dusk to dawn. She said the decision to impose curfew was due to the unsatisfactory compliance level to the ban on the commercial tricycle and motorcycle operators and restriction on large gatherings by large sections of residents. She also noted that Kaduna does not have the human resources and the health facilities to cope with the pandemic should it spread through the towns and villages in the state.
She warned that “from midnight of Thursday, 26th March 2020, all residents of Kaduna State must stay at home. No offices, businesses of any sort of places of worship are allowed to open.” Balarabe noted that the only workers in essential services such as health workers, the fire service and security personnel are exempted from the curfew. Vehicles traveling through the state to other states are permitted transit, but they are expected to ply only the Western bye-pass. The deputy governor said the curfew will be strictly enforced by the security agencies. While the curfew is on, “churches and mosques will be shut, there will no congregational prayers or services either within these places of worship or outdoors,” Balarabe said. “Wedding events and all social gatherings are strictly prohibited while these emergency measures remain in place,” she added.
The dire warning is coming weeks after Nigeria had the first case of the virus. The NCDC said 14 new cases were confirmed late on Thursday. Of the 14, six were detected on a vessel; three were returning travelers into Nigeria and was a close contact of a confirmed case. Two of those cases were confirmed in Abuja while the remaining 12 were in Lagos, NCDC said. The country has so far recorded 65 cases in eight states and capital city Abuja. Two of the patients have fully recovered and discharged. Six more have fully recovered and will be discharged on Friday, according to Lagos State Government. One death has been recorded so far.
Nigeria is one of the African countries that have the fewest cases of coronavirus; hence, there are worries that authorities may not be testing enough people. The National Center for Disease Control (NCDC); the nation’s disease control agency, like the United States and the United Kingdom, has adopted a strategy of limiting tests to only people already showing symptoms of the disease or have come in contact with confirmed cases. But in comparison to those countries, Nigeria’s test numbers are far lower. The US had done 370,000 tests according to Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator. Officials are mum on the number of people tested so far in Nigeria.
Nevertheless, the authorities in the country have put in place several measures to stop the spread of the virus. In fact, the information minister said Nigerians should expect more in days to come, a pointer that the country might be shutdown. The government placed travel restriction on 15 countries with a high prevalence of the virus. The government also suspended its visa on arrival policy on the same day. All international flights have also been barred from all Nigeria airports. The government has also advised citizens to stay at home as the world tackles the pandemic. All schools and tertiary institutions in the country have also been shut for a month.
