Due to the increasing cases of COVID-19 in the country, the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 has opined that Lagos, Abuja and Plateau states are likely to experience another lockdown.

PTF National Incident Manager, Mukhtar Muhammed, on Friday expressed that the likely fresh lockdown in the states and in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja is due to the alarming and rising cases of COVID-19 infections recorded.

According to report by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Lagos has  recorded 46,935 cases, Abuja, 16,470 cases) and Plateau has the record of 7,801 cases in the last eleven months.  

The PTF official revealed that the Federal Government wants economic activities to continue but these activities must be in a regulated fashion

Speaking  on the possibility of a targeted lockdown and not a total lockdown based on data of hotspot areas, Muhammed said, “That is exactly what we did, 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.

“Mostly, the areas affected are the urban local governments in Lagos, Abuja, Kaduna, Plateau. Even in most other states, it is the urban areas that are involved. So, if we are going to have any restriction, it will be in these areas.

“The urban areas are the most affected and that is why we have these superspreaders 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,” he added.