COVID-19 Third Wave: There Is No Plan To Order Fresh Lockdown – NEC

As the country prepares for COVID-19’s third wave, the National Economic Council declared on Thursday that there was “no evidence of an approaching lockdown.”

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State announced this to State House media following the virtual NEC meeting at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, which was presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

The vice president promised outSanwo-Olu that NEC would organize an emergency meeting on the COVID-19 third wave whenever the necessity arose, according to the meeting’s outcome.

The World Health Organization has previously warned about the spread of COVID-19’s Delta version, as well as the inconsistent application of proven public health interventions, which it claimed was driving up case numbers and deaths.

“We will be reviewing on a weekly basis, like every two to three days, what the trends are; the chairman of the council has also mentioned to us that if there is a need for an emergency meeting, he will call one.

“But, assurances were given by the NCDC and the Presidential Task Force, working with relevant states like Lagos, to be tracking and monitoring what is happening almost on daily basis.

“So, we do not think that we are there; we do not have any indication that we will get there; so we are preparing ourselves to ensure that as much as possible, we can very quickly flatten the curve,” Sanwo-Olu said.

Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, Director General of the NCDC, gave a global overview of what had happened in the previous month, with Nigeria having 168, 552 cases registered as of July 15 and 1,993 active cases, according to the governor.

The governor cited the NCDC as noting that states had released over 140, 000 persons, with just 2,124 deaths thus far, in addition to the fact that positive rates had increased despite the low number of cases in the country.

According to Sanwo-Olu, Ihekweazu informed the NEC that Lagos State has the largest load of cases in the country, accounting for 70% to 80% of all instances, with an increase in the number of cases since 10 weeks ago.

“In the last two weeks, we have seen an increase from a positivity average of about 1.5 per cent to positivity average nationally of about 3.5 per cent; Lagos has seen a positivity of 5.5 per cent in the last two weeks; so Lagos, Rivers and Kwara from the report have seen increases in positivity rates.

“It is important for us to know that the Delta variant, which is the new variant, is also in our country and has also been identified in a total of 103 countries globally.

“The Delta variant is 60 per cent more transmissible than the Alfa variant; so, we are watching all the trends and the NCDC and Lagos will be working collaboratively,’’ Sanwo-Olu said.

Meanwhile, Hajia Umar Farouk, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, had confirmed making a presentation to the council on Flood Risk Management Plan, 2021.