…As Army General, Top Publisher Die; Two Governor’s Go Into Self-Isolation
By Dayo Omoogun
There is a growing apprehension among Nigerians over the likelihood of another round of the COVID-19 pandemic and that the outbreak may lead to total lockdown again.
This is as a result of the rising toll of confirmed cases of the disease within the last two weeks. Records from the NCDC show that there 617 new cases on Saturday alone while the 2- week period from Saturday 28, November to Friday 11 December, 2020, four thousand nine hundred and twenty (4920) cases were recorded.
Moreso, there have been reports of deaths which resulted from the disease during the past week of Army General and General Officer Commanding, GOC of 6 Division based in Port Harcourt,. Major-General Olu Irefin and of the Founder and Publisher of LEADERSHIP Newspapers which occurred on Tuesday and Friday respectively.Just on Saturday newsreports also had it that Governor Babajide Sanwoolu of Lagos State and Nasir El- Rufai of Kaduna State had gone into isolation. It is important to note that this is the second time the Kaduna state governor is going into self isolation.
Full relaxation of the lockdown rules was just recently announced barely 8 weeks ago and the several months of shutdown has resulted in economic meltdown with Nigeria currently struggling in the throes of a recession.
Most citizens are therefore alarmed that another lockdown in such short order could come with calamitous consequences.
Pronouncements by public figures and government officials give no comfort whatsoever on the matter.Minister of Health, Dr. Chris Ehanire said on Thursday at the Presidential Task Foce on COVID-19 press briefing:
“We are seeing the increase in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the last few days, which we alluded to in recent times. This rightly suggests that we may just be on the verge of a second wave of this pandemic. Last week, we recorded 1843 cases against 1235 two weeks before that and 1126 the week before that. In the past 24 hours, 474 new confirmed cases and 2 deaths were recorded, with an indication that this week’s figure will beat last week’s.” Indeed it turned out higher at
Some citizens insist however that these high figures are being deliberately churned out to create fear to fit into the agenda of Big Pharma even as various countries have started to come out with their own vaccines.
They argued that lockdown should not be considered as the way to go since according to them, there are several protocols that have been put in place to curb the spread of the pandemic, such as the use of face mask, social distancing, which only require strict enforcement.
So far, 1194 deaths have been resulted in Nigeria while 72,757 tests have been carried out, of which 65,850 have been discharged.