In a bid contain the spread of the coronavirus, Governors of the 36 States of the federation solidly agreed to the implementation of an inter-State lockdown in the country over the next two weeks.
This agreement was reached by the governors on Wednesday at their Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), where the Governors of Lagos, Bauchi, Oyo and Ogun States who shared their experiences and lessons from the fight against COVID-19.
A communiqe issued by the NGF chairman and governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, at the end of the sixth COVID-19 teleconference meeting said only essential services would be permitted.
State governors called for the decentralization of the COVID-19 response as the best chance of nipping the spread of the virus in communities with over 25 States now affected by the spread of the virus and increasing evidence of community transmission.
Members of the NGF also voiced serious concern over the rising spread of the virus among health workers and resolved to work with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to ensure that health workers are “adequately” provided with personal protective equipment (PPE) and are “constantly” trained on the use of protective gears. This followed an update from the NGF Secretariat on the number of COVID-19 cases in the country.
Governors also resolved to set up COVID-19 committees at the regional level, headed by their State Commissioners of Health in order to strengthen coordinated implementation of necessary public health recommendations across States. Regional committees, the communique added, will continue to interface with the State Task Force Committees on COVID-19 already established in each State.
Recall that President Buhari currently imposed lockdown in only the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Lagos and Ogun States to halt the spread of the novel pandemic coronavirus.
Some of the States have taken similar measures to fight the deadly virus but there is no nationwide lockdown from the federal government.
