By Anthony Isaac
President Muhammadu Buhari today extended the first phase of the programme to gradually ease the lockdown he put in place two weeks ago to curb the Covid-19 outbreak.
The president’s order was announced this evening by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation/Chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on Covid-19, Mr. Boss Mustapha, during the daily briefing of the PTF in Abuja.
He explained that the action was a result of the mixed success recorded in the implementation of the first phase over the past two weeks.
Mustapha said the PTF briefed the President on Sunday on the outcome of the phase one implementation and that it was obvious that “Nigeria is not yet ready for full opening of the economy and tough decisions have to be taken for the good of the greater majority. Any relaxation will only portend grave danger for our populace”.
He added: “Advisedly, the current phase of eased restriction will be maintained for another two weeks during which stricter enforcement and persuasion measures will be pursued.
“The two weeks extension of Phase one of the eased restriction is also to enable other segments of the economy prepare adequately for compliance with the guidelines, preparatory to reopening in the coming weeks. For the PTF, we share your pains but our future is in the hands of every Nigerian and future decisions will depend greatly on our compliance”.
He said following the PTF recommendations, President Buhari approved that:
i)The measures, exemptions, advisories and scope of entities allowed to reopen under phase one of the eased locked down, shall be maintained across the federation for another two weeks effective from 12 00 midnight today (18th May, 2020 to 1st June, 2020);
ii) intensifying efforts to “tell (communicate), trace (identify) and treat (manage)’ cases;
iii) elevating the level of community ownership of non-pharmaceutical interventions;
iv)Maintain the existing lockdown order in Kano for an additional two weeks;
v) Imposition of precision lockdown in states, or in metropolitan/high-burden LGAs, that are reporting a rapidly increasing number of cases, when the need arises. This would be complemented with the provision of palliatives and continued re-evaluation of the impact of the interventions; and
vi) Aggressive scale up of efforts to ensure that communities are informed, engaged and participating in the response with enhanced public awareness in high risk states.
