…Virus Kills 193 Nigerians In 20 DaysÂ
From Segun Amure, (The New Diplomat’s Abuja Bureau)
The federal government hinted on Friday that it may slam targeted lockdown on states that have become the hotspots of Covid-19 infections in the country.
This comes as Nigeria posted an all-time high deaths, Friday, shattering previous record of highest fatality figure in the country.
The hotspots to be targeted by the federal government include the FCT-Abuja, Lagos and Plateau States.
The National Incident Manager of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, Mukhtar Muhammed, who stated this while speaking on Channels TV, Friday described as alarming the rising cases of COVID-19 infections recorded in the three urban areas.
Muhammed said data showed that urban local governments in the affected places recorded the highest cases of COVID-19 amid the second wave of the pandemic in Nigeria.
According to latest data by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Lagos has recorded 47, 879 with 311 deaths; FCT 16, 565 with 126 deaths; Plateau 7891 with 53 deaths. The three hotspots have recorded the highest number of Covid-19 infections and fatalities in Nigeria in the last twelve months.
Speaking on having targeted lockdown as against total lockdown Muhammed said, “We have been analysing the data and we have been looking at the geographical areas that have been most affected and the different age groups.
“Certainly, even if we are going to have a lockdown, it is not going to be a total lockdown. A couple of weeks back, we analysed the data and we identified the hotspot local government areas.
“The urban areas are the most affected and that is why we have these super spreaders and that is where we are going to target. We have analysed that and we are advising the states based on the data that these are the focused areas where these transmissions are more than the others.”
Meanwhile, Nigeria recorded its highest death fatality figure on Friday, 29 January as the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control announced 27 new deaths.
This figure has risen the country’s death toll to 1577.
Before now, the highest death figure recorded in the country is 23 deaths on January 14. It came after Nigeria had recorded 22 deaths on January 28.
A further prognosis of the data showed that Covid-19 had killed 193 Nigerians in the last 20 days.
Moreover, till date, a total number of 128, 674 cases have been confirmed, 102, 780 cases have been discharged in all the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
However, Lagos led with 408 cases, FCT followed 95 cases and Plateau came third with 90.
Furthermore, a backlog of 26 discharged cases in Akwa Ibom State and 713 community recoveries in Lagos State, 124 in Plateau State & 118 in Kaduna state were recorded.
Friday’s Specifics:
The 1114 new cases are reported from 22 states- Lagos (408), FCT (95), Plateau (90), Ondo (66), Kaduna (63), Oyo (56), Borno (46), Imo (42), Edo (41), Ogun (37), Rivers (31), Ekiti (25), Yobe (20), Kano (18), Akwa Ibom (18), Delta (15), Osun (15), Kwara (11), Bayelsa (6), Nasarawa (6), Zamfara (4) and Bauchi (1)
