COVID-19: FG Has Not Declared Fresh Lockdown – PTF

The National Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Dr. Sani Aliyu, has asked Nigerians to disregard a fake fresh lockdown alert on social media.
Press Informant reports that Aliyu made this known in a short video statement released on Thursday.

According to the coordinator, the government was aware of the economic implication of a fresh lockdown.

Dr Aliyu urged Nigerians to adhere to all guidelines to curb the spread of COVID-19.

He said, “We are aware of a fake message on WhatsApp that we’ve declared a lockdown in the country. This is absolutely not true. I call on the Nigerian public to please ignore this message and continue with normal activities.

“I’m also calling on the public to abide by the non-pharmaceutical interventions including wearing of face masks in the public, washing of hands and maintaining physical distancing.

“There is an established way that we send our messages to the public including declarations when it comes to infection control. So, please ignore what is going round on WhatsApp.”

Press Informant reports that the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Thursday night, January 14 confirmed one thousand four hundred and seventy-nine (1,479) new cases of COVID-19.

The newly reported cases bring the total cases of the novel virus to 105,478 in Nigeria since its outbreak in February last year.

NCDC reports that it has discharged a total of 83,830 patients while 1,405 people have died of the dreaded disease.