Buhari extends COVID-19 restrictions by two weeks

President Muhammadu Buhari has directed that the first phase of the eased lockdown measure be sustained for another two weeks.

Secretary to the Government of the Federation SGF and Chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic, Mr Boss Mustapha, announced this during Monday’s daily press briefing by the task force.

The SGF explained that the President’s decision was informed by the realisation of the fact that any further relaxation of measures adopted to contain the spread of COVID-19 would mean grave danger for the nation.

Mustapha, who took a cursory review of the last two weeks when the current measures were instituted, observed that despite the efforts made so far, Nigeria was not ripe yet for a full opening of the economy, adding that all necessary sacrifices must be made in the interest of Nigerians.

To this end, he said President Buhari had ordered that the current level of eased lockdown should be repeated from midnight of Monday, May 18 to June 1, 2020, this would include the 8pm to 6am nationwide curfew that had since been in force.

He also said that the total lockdown on Kano state had been extended with another two weeks, while a precision lockdown would be imposed on states or metropolitan areas which had been identified as high burden areas.

Also, the SGF said government would henceforth engage in aggressive scaling up of community participation in the campaign against the COVID-19 scourge.