The Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 has decried the alarming rise in fresh cases of COVID-19 infection in Lagos and Plateau states as well as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
It said that the task force has not ruled out imposing a fresh round of lockdown in the affected places if it will help curb the spread of the virus.
However, the PTF said, any fresh lockdown would be a targeted lockdown rather than a total one.
PTF National Incident Manager, Mukhtar Muhammed stated this Friday, noting that data showed that urban local government areas in the three areas were most affected in the second wave of the pandemic currently being experienced in Nigeria.
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Mohammed, who spoke on Channels Television‘s popular current affairs programme Sunrise Daily, said that the Federal Government was not interested in shutting down economic activities but noted that such must be properly regulated not to expose people to COVID-19 risk.
The PTF member said, “We have been analysing the data and we have been looking at the geographical areas that have been most affected and the different age groups.
“Certainly, even if we are going to have a lockdown, it is not going to be a total lockdown. A couple of weeks back, we analysed the data and we identified the hotspot local government areas.
“Mostly, the areas affected are the urban local governments in Lagos, Abuja, Kaduna, Plateau. Even in most other states, it is the urban areas that are involved. So, if we are going to have any restriction, it will be in these areas.
“The urban areas are the most affected and that is why we have these superspreaders and that is where we are going to target. We have analysed that and we are advising the states based on the data that these are the focused areas where these transmissions are more than the others,” Mohammed said.