Lockdown Will Be Extended If Nigerians Don’t Behave Themselves — Lai Mohammed

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has stated that the lockdown currently experienced in some parts of the country may be extended if Nigerians don’t behave themselves.

The minister, who is a member of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, disclosed this in Abuja when he featured in a forum to give an update on government efforts at containing the pandemic, NAN reports.

He said,

“If we don’t behave ourselves, there is a likelihood that the lockdown will be extended. But if we behave ourselves, there might not be an extension and I hope we do so,” he said at an interview session with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

He added: “If we stay at home for two weeks and we are doing everything we are supposed to do, we should be able to effectively contain the disease.

“Therefore, my appeal to Nigerians is that they should obey the directive on social distancing, personal hygiene and shun gatherings. After two weeks, we will resume our normal life.

“But if they think it is a joke, then we may have to stay at home more than the two weeks.”

President Muhammadu Buhari announced the lockdown in a broadcast last Sunday as part of the effort to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

The President said it would last two weeks in the first instance to “identify, trace and isolate all individuals that have come into contact with confirmed cases.”

There were 111 cases in the country when he made the broadcast a week ago.

During the NAN interview, the Information Minister also said that the government would not allow families of coronavirus victims to claim their remains for burial.

Mohammed said such corpses are delicate hence the Federal Government has assumed responsibility for their handling and burial.

“Coronavirus is very dangerous and contagious; there is no medicine for it yet and it is not just capable of killing, overwhelming health care system but it will destroy the economy,” he said.

“In some countries, they are putting dead bodies in big refrigerators because the morgues have filled up.

“Nigerians should not forget that this is not the type of corpses that can be claimed for burial because it must be handled by the Ministry of Health.”

The minister who is a member of the Presidential Task Force for the Control of Coronavirus said the Federal Government had advised state governors to provide, at least, 300-bed space facilities in their respective states in case of an upsurge in the coronavirus pandemic.

He was optimistic that the government would use the COVID-19 advantage and experience to further develop the health facilities in the country.

“We pray sincerely that we will not fall into the same error after we fought Ebola, and we relaxed,” he said.

“We intend to use the opportunity of this coronavirus to improve our health care system at the federal, state and local government levels.

“Nobody ever thought that what is worse than Ebola will come. The successes we have achieved so far are through technology, sharing data with WHO, US Centre for Disease Control.

“The governors must not wait for a deluge of patients before making the preparation.

“We are not asking them to build hospitals, but if they have facilities that can be converted such as hotels, conference centres, let us know and we will come and accredit them.

“We will tell them what equipment they would need and what type of training we are going to give as support.”

Mohammed said the Presidential Task Force for the Control of Coronavirus (COVID-19) was yet to receive any money from the funds donated by the private sector towards the fight against COVID-19 pandemic.

When his attention was drawn to calls by some Non-Governmental Organisation for the probe of the task force over the disbursement of monies gathered from the donations, the minister said: “We have not received even one kobo; people want us probed for how we spent monies we have not even seen.

“I can say without any fear that as of this moment, the task force has not received a kobo from anybody.

“The only money we will be able to account for is whatever money we receive from the federal government.

“The Nigeria Economy Group-led private sector has said it is not going to give a penny to the task force; it says it will only raise the money and ask us what our needs are.”

COVID-19 claims two more lives

One of the latest Coronavirus deaths occurred in Lagos and the other in Edo State.

Chairman Medical Advisory Committee (CMAC) of Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) Prof Lanre Adeyemo, confirmed the death of the COVID-19 patient at the hospital.

Contacted last night by The Nation to react to reports of a suspected case of Coronavirus dying in the hospital, Adeyemo said: “Yes, that is correct.”

Continuing, he said: “He had initially presented himself at the Infection Disease Hospital (IDH), Yaba.

“The policy, for now, is that when a patient presents they take the sample, and most of the time, they send the patient home. It is only when it is positive they bring them to Yaba.

“This one, before they announced that he was positive, the patient deteriorated and went to one hospital which referred him to LASUTH.

“LASUTH referred him to us but he came in at 4 am deteriorated.  When we suspected that he had COVID-19, we kept him in the holding area and he was the only person there.

“We then called our expert here in LUTH who is also part of the IDH Yaba to come and take a sample so that we could confirm.

“In that process, he needed to get go-ahead from IDH which eventually told him that the patient had, had his sample taken earlier and that it was positive.

“They came from Yaba to evacuate the patient. He eventually died at the holding area.”

Asked if the deceased visited the hospital alone, Prof Adeyemo replied: “He couldn’t have come alone to the hospital. I think some friends brought him, but we couldn’t find them again.”

He dismissed fears that more people might have been infected in the hospital as the deceased might have had contact with some patients at the hospital.

“It is all rumour.  This is a tertiary hospital. COVID or no COVID, we have universal precautions that we take.  The patient had no contact with any other patient. He was alone at the holding area,” he said.

There were no immediate details about the Edo State case.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) confirmed 20 additional cases, bringing the total cases in the country to 210.

FG set to evacuate Nigerians home

The Federal Government yesterday told Nigerians wishing to return home on account of the Coronavirus pandemic to get ready to be evacuated shortly.

But such people should be prepared to pay for their flight.

The government will also not release the bodies of victims to their families.

It will be solely responsible for burial to minimise contact with the corpses.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, according to the Chairman, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa, has directed all its missions abroad to compile the lists of Nigerians who wish to return home.

Dabiri-Erewa said in a statement in Abuja that this was a sequel to requests by Nigerians stranded abroad in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

However, such Nigerians will bear the financial implications of their evacuation.

Besides, they will be “compulsorily quarantined when they return,” she said.

The Head, Media, and Public Relations Unit, NIDCOM, Abdur-Rahman Balogun, said: “The interested Nigerians are advised to inform the missions in the various countries they are in, which will then collate and coordinate with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“To this end, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa urged Nigerians stranded abroad willing to return home to key into this Federal Government gesture by providing information to the mission in their respective host countries.”

FG’s chartered plane to China turns back in Ghana

An Airpeace flight chartered by the Federal Government to bring in doctors and medical equipment from China to help combat COVID-19 on Friday unexpectedly turned back from Ghana.

The aircraft departed from the Nnamdi Azikiwe international Airport, Abuja.

No reasons were given for the aborted trip.

The trip was originally scheduled for March 31 before it was shifted to yesterday.

Sources who should know preferred to keep sealed lips on the trip yesterday.

They however told THE NATION that the flight has now been scheduled to depart on Monday.

 Coronavirus corpses will be buried by government – Lai Mohammed

Information and Culture Minister Lai Mohammed said yesterday that the government would not allow families of coronavirus victims to claim their remains for burial.

Mohammed, speaking during an interview session with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, said such corpses are delicate hence the Federal Government has assumed responsibility for their handling and burial.

He said: “Coronavirus is very dangerous and contagious. There is no medicine for it yet and it is not just capable of killing, overwhelming health care system, it will destroy the economy.

“In some countries, they are putting dead bodies in big refrigerators because the morgues have filled up.

“Nigerians should not forget that this is not the type of corpses that can be claimed for burial; it must be handled by the Ministry of Health.”

The minister, who is a member of the Presidential Task Force on the Control of Coronavirus, said the Federal Government had advised state governors to provide at least 300-bed space facilities in their respective states in case of an upsurge in the coronavirus pandemic.

He was optimistic that the government would use the COVID-19 advantage and experience to further develop the health facilities in the country.

“We pray sincerely that we will not fall into the same error after we fought Ebola, and we relaxed,” he said.

“We intend to use the opportunity of this coronavirus to improve our health care system at the federal, state and local government levels.

“Nobody ever thought that what is worse than Ebola will come. The successes we have achieved so far are through technology, sharing data with WHO, US Centre for Disease Control.

“The governors must not wait for a deluge of patients before making the preparation.

“We are not asking them to build hospitals, but if they have facilities that can be converted such as hotels, conference centres, let us know and we will come and accredit them.

“We will tell them what equipment they would need and what type of training we are going to give as support.”

The minister warned that the Federal Government could extend the 14-day lockdown if the restrictions in Lagos and Ogun States as well as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) continued to be violated.

“If we don’t behave ourselves, there is a likelihood that the lockdown will be extended. But if we behave ourselves, there might not be an extension, and I hope we do so.

“If we stay at home for two weeks and we are doing everything we are supposed to do, we should be able to effectively contain the disease.

“Therefore, my appeal to Nigerians is that they should obey the directive on social distancing, personal hygiene and shun gatherings; after two weeks, we will resume our normal life.

“But if they think it is a joke, then we may have to stay at home more than the two weeks.”

Mohammed said the Presidential Task Force for the Control of Coronavirus (COVID-19) was yet to receive any money from the funds donated by the private sector towards the fight against COVID-19 pandemic.

When his attention was drawn to calls by some Non-Governmental Organisation for a probe of the task force over the disbursement of monies gathered from the donations, the minister said: “We have not received even one kobo. People want us probed on how we spent monies we have not even seen.

“I can say without any fear that as of this moment, the task force has not received a kobo from anybody.

“The only money we will be able to account for is whatever money we receive from the federal government.

“The Nigeria Economy Group-led private sector has said it is not going to give a penny to the task force; it says it will only raise the money and ask us what our needs are.”

Ondo records first coronavirus case

Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State last night announced the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the state.

The governor took to his Twitter handle saying: “We have just received confirmation of our first positive #COVID?19 case in Ondo State this evening. The infected person is currently under isolation and will be monitored. We have activated all necessary protocol to locate all contacts and will be working closely with @NCDCgov

“The infected is in very stable condition and we ask for calm from all in Ondo State. We are on top of this and ask that our citizens continue to follow all preventive measures to ensure they remain safe.

“The index case is a military officer who was a returnee from India. He has been in isolation since he returned and has been monitored by the medical team of the Military and our state team throughout this period.

“Upon showing some symptoms, his samples were taken and the diagnosis confirmed by @NCDCgov at their lab in Ede. We have now commenced the transfer of the officer to the state isolation center.”