As part of efforts towards combating the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic, the Bauchi State Government has imposed a total lockdown across the state. The State government which announced the complete lockdown effective Thursday April 2, said it was meant to mitigate the spread of the dreaded COVID-19 virus.
A three-paragraph statement signed by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Mohammed Sabiu Baba, and made available to reporters in Bauchi on Tuesday said the total lockdown will take effect as from Thursday, 2nd April 2020 as from 6 pm and will remain in operation for the next 14 days
According to the statement, “Sen Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir, Governor of Bauchi State appreciates the sacrifices of the public in these agonizing period. He has subsequently directed that in order for the public to purchase food items, movement is allowed between 10 am to 4 pm on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The ban does not, however, affect essential services”.
The governor also appealed to the public to appreciate that the measures were aimed at curtailing the spread of COVID-19 that currently threatening the society. He urged the people to continue with prayers to God. Bauchi recorded another positive case of COVID-19 bringing the number of positive cases to three including the Governor, who was the first to test positive.
The confirmation of the new positive case was announced by the Deputy Governor, Senator Baba Tela, while briefing journalists Tuesday on the daily updates of the virus in the state saying the new positive case is a 55-year-old man who had contact with one of the earlier two positive cases.
The deputy governor further confirmed that the new positive case was one of the contacts of the two previous cases, assuring that efforts have been intensified to trace all of the contacts of the three positive cases to ensure that they were tested to confirm their status.
Tela who is Chairman of the State Rapid Response Taskforce on COVID-19 and Lassa Fever explained that so far the samples of 100 people had been taken and tested out of which a substantial number had turned out negative.
He however assured that the state was ready to curtail the spread of the infection across the state declaring that, “our isolation center here in Bayara General Hospital is 80 percent ready, by tomorrow (Wednesday) it will be operational and ready to admit patients for management.”
The deputy governor also disclosed that essential drugs and other management needs had been procured for case management and treatment regretting however that the distance between Bauchi and Abuja is an impediment to quick response to test.
He appealed to the NCDC to as a matter of urgency give the state all necessary testing machines considering the suspected number of cases discovered in the state so far. He then warned that the lockdown will be total with only people on essential services allowed to operate adding that security operatives have been instructed to enforce the lockdown order. He appealed to the public to cooperate with government in order to reduce the spread of the infection.
