Observe COVID-19 Guidelines To Prevent Fresh Lockdown – Presidential Aide, Garba Shehu Warns Nigerians

By Tunde Serano Last updated Feb 1, 2021

As Nigeria continues to record relatively high cases of COVID-19 infection, the presidency has warned against violations of safety guidelines issued to curtail the spread of the virus.

Wearing of face masks, washing of hands regularly with soap and clean water, and practising social distancing are parts of the non-pharmaceutical interventions in place to limit the spread of the virus.

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, in a statement issued on Sunday, said further violations of the protocols could lead to fresh lockdown.

The statement indicated that Buhari administration is reluctant to lock down the country because many citizens will not have food on the table without venturing out for their day-to-day business.

Shehu stated;

The Buhari administration is most reluctant to lock down the country and continues to emphasize the non-pharmaceutical measures and the only way to avert lockdowns is to observe these measures as put in place by the Presidential Task Force.

Nigerians have come a long way from the dreaded lockdown and the administration is unhappy about any prospects of bringing it back as many citizens will not have food on the table without venturing out on a day-to-day business.

He added that the COVID-19 pandemic is a threat to the population and the national economy, stressing;

Protecting public health is one of the sacred duties of any responsible government and the administration will not abdicate that responsibility.

The presidential aide appealed to Nigerians to give their maximum cooperation for the success of the policy.

The warning follows the signing of COVID-19 health protection regulations 2021 by President Muhammadu Buhari, which prescribes six-month jail term for persons convicted for disobeying any COVID-19 guideline.

It also states that any offence under the regulations is punishable by a fine or a term of six months imprisonment or both.

It would be recalled that few weeks after the detection of the first case of COVID-19 in Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari imposed a five-week lockdown on the country in March last year.

This was followed by a series of lockdowns as part of measures to limit the spread of the virus, which helped curtail the widespread.

However, since early December, there has been an upscale in reported cases and deaths from COVID-19 as the country experiences the second wave of the pandemic.

As at Sunday night, the number of people infected with COVID-19 stood at 131,242 after 685 new cases were reported in 16 states across the nation.

According to NCDC’s data, recoveries from the virus is 104,989 while total death toll in Nigeria stood at 1,586.