Joseph, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Lagos, called for total enforcement of the lockdown order to effectively contain the spread of the virus.

“The situation would have been mild, if the governments had swung into action and given directives, particularly the lockdown order immediately the first case of the Coronavirus disease was noticed,” he said.

Joseph, therefore, called for total lockdown of major states with high numbers of confirmed cases such as Federal Capital Territory (FCT ), Ogun, Lagos and Osun as more cases were being recorded in the states.

He emphasised the need for strict enforcement of the lockdown for full compliance by the populace.

According to him, it remains the major way of ensuring social distancing, since the spread was mainly through direct contact with infected person.

“Therefore, I suggest that everyone  should cooperate with government in ensuring that there is proper understanding and practice of hygiene, social distancing and other supportive measures to avoid the spread of this deadly virus,” Joseph said.

He further stressed the need for increased awareness through  mass media advertisement, jingles and publications to senitise people to the reality and seriousness of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Joseph said that most people still took the issue lightly.

He attributed the sharp rise to the late directives and decisions by the relevant authorities.

The expert said that the lockdown order should have taken effect immediately after the first case of Coronavirus disease was recorded in the country.

He said that the immediate action would have gone a long way to prevent wider spread of the virus since the multiplayer effect of the disease rises in geometric ratio.

According to him, the virus has widely spread across the country before the State and Federal Governments came up with directives to contain the spread of the  pandemic.

He said the fact that an infected person remained healthy for minimum of 14 days after contraction was a period long enough to spread the virus to hundreds of people without knowing and the spread continues in the same chain.

“On April 8 alone, 22 news cases were confirmed in the country; 15 in Lagos, four in FCT, two in Bauchi and one in Edo, making the total numbers of confirmed cases of Coronavirus disease in Nigeria to increase to 278.

“Indeed, going by what is obtained in other countries, Nigerians should be thankful to God, because the virus seems not to be deadly and killing fast as observed in other countries of the world. (NAN)