The federal government yesterday unveiled plans to restart the economy that has been paralysed for more than four weeks due to measures to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
It also outlined operational guidelines in furtherance of President Muhammadu Buhari’s broadcast on Monday to relax the lockdown imposed on the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Lagos and Ogun States from next Monday.
The reopening of the economy will be done in phases, spanning a total of six weeks and broken into three tranches of two weeks each.
The virus, however, afflicted 196 more persons yesterday bringing to 1,728 the total number of confirmed cases in the country.
According to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Lagos recorded 87 new cases, Kano 24, Gombe 18, Kaduna 17, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) 16, Katsina 10, Sokoto eight, Edo seven, Borno six, while Yobe, Ebonyi, and Adamawa recorded one each.
It said so far 307 persons had been discharged, while 51 had died.
As part of its easement process, the federal government has limited the total operational hours for all commercial banks nationwide, starting from Monday, to only six hours per day from 8 a.m to 2 p.m.
All arrivals in Nigeria will now undergo mandatory supervised isolation for at least 14 days.
The federal government also announced its decision to purchase 107,000 cartridges to be used in the deployment of the GeneXpert machine already configured for the testing of people for the virus.
Also yesterday, the Lagos State Government announced the discharge of 49 more patients just as it has projected that the number of cases in the state will continue to rise until June when it is expected to slow down.
However, the state has placed four hotels on standby for conversion to isolation centres to absorb the expected surge.
Speaking yesterday in Abuja during the media briefing by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, the Chairman of the task force and Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha, said the phased reopening of the economy was designed to reduce the pains of socio-economic disruptions.
He explained that the overnight curfew imposed by Buhari during the broadcast is applicable nationwide from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. daily, effective from Monday.
“In line with Mr. President’s directive in paragraphs 38-41 of his broadcast, the PTF has developed sector-specific guidelines. The gradual reopening of the economy will span a total of six weeks broken into three tranches of two weeks each,” he said adding: “This phased strategy is designed to reduce the pains of socio-economic disruptions while strengthening our public health response, which would ultimately reduce the recovery of our economy and provide succour to the poor and vulnerable.”
He called for collaboration with the state governments. Asking them to coordinate market and transport associations to implement the directive of the president.
He directed the security agencies to strictly enforce the new measures that had been pronounced by the federal government.
The SGF stated that the technical team of public health experts sent by the PTF to Kano had commenced evaluation of the situation in the state.
He added that 50 trucks of assorted grains have been sent to Kano.
“I am pleased to also inform you that the operationalisation of the laboratories in Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital and Bayero University Kano will considerably improve our response to the pandemic in Kano State,” he said.
Source: THISDAY
