Ebonyi State government has ordered all courts in the state to be shut down following the death of a judiciary officer from coronavirus.
The state governor, David Umahi, announced this on Friday morning via a radio broadcast.
He said the death of the officer serves as the state’s first coronavirus casualty, despite the efforts of the state government to contain the spread of the disease.
Governor Umahi stated that the directive to shut down all courts is to take effect from Friday and will last a period of 10 days.
The governor also advised all the judiciary officials and their family members to undergo COVID-19 tests within the period.
He appealed to all residents of the state to be vigilant and make sure they continue to comply with the precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the virus.
The first death in Ebonyi is among the six new COVID-19 fatalities announced by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Thursday night.
In its latest update on the outbreak, the health agency announced a record of 745 cases, the highest figure of COVID-19 cases to be reported in a single day.
The new cases were recorded in 20 states and the Federal Capital Territory, with Lagos having 280 cases followed by Oyo and Ebonyi with 103 and 72 infections respectively.
Others include FCT – 60, Imo – 46, Edo – 34, Delta – 33, Rivers – 25, Kaduna – 23, Ondo – 16, Katsina – 12, Kano – 10, Bauchi – eight, Borno – seven, Kwara – five, Gombe – four, Sokoto and Enugu – two, and one each in Yobe, Osun, and Nasarawa.
This brings the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Nigeria to 18,480 out of which 6,307 patients have been discharged and 475 deaths recorded.
The states with the highest cases in the six zones are Lagos in South West has 7,896, the FCT in North Central with 1,451 cases, and Kano in North West has 1,170 cases.
Edo in South-South with 729 cases, Borno leads in North East with 464 cases, while Ebonyi in South East has 234 cases.
