The Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, on Monday explained the importance of the curfew imposed on Abuja, Lagos, Ogun States by the President.
Speaking about the address by President Muhammadu Buhari on coronavirus (COVID-19) during his appearance on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, Ihekweazu admitted that it was a tough decision to restrict movement in the affected places, especially Lagos and Abuja.
He, however, stressed that the curfew was to ease the burden on health workers monitoring those suspected to have had contact with confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country.
“Every time we have a new case, we add about 50 to 60 contacts that we then have to follow every single day for 14 days.
“We can’t do this if we don’t have access to these cases, so this is really one of the reasons why Mr President took this very difficult decision and it is not just to stop movement.
“It is to enable us and our team, Lagos State team, FCT team to reach the contacts, keep them at home, make sure they are supported and see whether we can really use this time to buy some time to get ahead of the case and ultimately, we will see that curve start going down,” an optimistic Ihekweazu explained.
According to him, the NCDC is following no fewer than 6,000 suspected to have had contact with the 111 confirmed cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) in the country.
The NCDC boss made the disclosure a day after President Muhammadu Buhari addressed Nigerians over the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
In his speech, the President listed some of the measures put in place by the Federal Government to curtail the spread of the disease and mitigate its effect on the Nigerian economy.
He also ordered the restriction of movement in Lagos and Ogun States, as well as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
