Nigeria is advising its sub-regions to limit public gatherings, close bars and nightclubs over the next five weeks amid a spike in new COVID-19 cases, a government coronavirus task force said on Monday.
Africa’s most populous nation could be on the verge of a second wave of the novel coronavirus with the number of confirmed cases rising within communities over the last few weeks.
Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, Abuja and the northern state of Kaduna have emerged as new epicenters with over 70% of confirmed cases, said Boss Mustapha, chairman of the presidential task force for COVID-19, who is the country’s most senior civil servant.
The proportion of positive tests for the virus has increased since the second week of December, linking the spread to large gatherings and poor compliance with face masks, he added.
The statement advised states to limit the meeting capacity of churches and mosques while pubs and event centers should be closed. The regions should enforce face mask use in public.
Nigeria, runs a federal system of government and local governments have the legal structure and enforcement to manage the pandemic within their jurisdictions, the statement said.
Lagos has ordered schools to shut indefinitely and banned concerts, carnivals and street parties and asked certain civil servants to work from home amid a spike in new COVID-19cases.
The statement said the government was discussing restricting international travels to countries where a new variant of the coronavirus had been discovered.
Nigeria’s Health Minister warns of second wave
Nigeria may be on the verge of a second wave of COVID-19 infections, the Health Minister warned two weeks ago, as another official said the country expects to roll out a vaccine by April next year.
, speaking at a news conference in the capital Abuja, said 1 843 cases were recorded last week compared with 1 235 two weeks before that.
“We may just be on the verge of a second wave of this pandemic,” he said.
His comments came a day after South Africa said it had officially entered a second wave.
Ehanire, in a weekly briefing by Nigeria’s COVID-19 task force, said the rise in cases was mostly driven by an increase in infections within communities and, to a lesser extent, by travellers entering Nigeria.
He said he had ordered the reopening of all isolation and treatment centres that had been closed due to falling patient numbers.
Looking ahead to a vaccine, Faisal Shuaib, executive director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), said Nigeria planned to access one through the Covax initiative backed by the World Health Organisation.
“We are on course to access safe and efficacious COVID-19 vaccines in the first quarter of 2021,” he said.
The Health Minister later in the briefing said Nigeria hoped to start with at least 20 million doses from the Covax facility, initially covering healthcare workers and vulnerable people who would be most at risk if infected, such as the elderly.
On Thursday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention urged rich countries that have ordered more COVID-19 vaccines than they need to consider distributing excess doses to Africa.
