The Federal Government has confirmed there will be no precision lockdown in 11 “high-burden” local government areas (LGAs), where COVID-19 is prevalent.
Seven of these LGAs are in Lagos, with others in Kano, Bayelsa and two others in unnamed states.
The National Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, Dr. Sani Aliyu, stated this on Monday during their press briefing.
According to him, closing down those local government councils will be akin to closing down the states, as their geography makes it hard to carry out isolated lockdown.
According to him, the PTF was working with the affected councils through risk communication and community engagement, as part of the means of intervention to reduce the high infection rate.
“We have 11 high-burden local government areas we have identified. And we are doing a lot of work in these local government areas, especially as it relates to risk communication and community engagement activities.
“We are also trying to improve testing, especially in Lagos where seven of the 11 local governments are.
“For instance, if we were to lockdown those local government areas in Lagos, we will have to lockdown the entire state. States like Bayelsa, where in Yenagoa, which is the local government with the high-burden, if we lock Yenagoa down, virtually all the roads across the state have to go through this local government.
“Technically it will be very difficult. We know if the interventions that we proposed are being implemented and people are cooperating, you do not actually need to lock people down at all,” Aliyu said.
