Covid-19: Abiodun Extends Lockdown, as Cases Rise to 134

Covid-19: Abiodun Extends Lockdown, as Cases Rise to 134

By Kayode Fasua

Active cases of the Covid-19 in Ogun State have, within one week, spiked from 100 to 134, representing more than 30 percent increase within one week.

Disclosing this at a news conference in Abeokuta Friday evening, the state governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, said the asymmetric rise in the Coronavirus cases has now necessitated an extension of the state’s lockdown by another one week.

Subsequently, the lockdown will now last till Sunday, May 24, he declared.

“In my last week briefing, the number of confirmed cases in Ogun State was 100. But, by yesterday, Thursday 14th May, 2020, we had recorded 34 more positive cases of COVID-19, bringing the total to 134.

“This shows an increase of more than 30%, in just one week,” a worried Abiodun disclosed.

He nonetheless explained that the window of relaxation in the lockdown, from 7am to 5pm, would continue, as usual, for Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Updating on government’s effort to flatten the curve of the pandemic, Governor Abiodun said the state had, within the last one week, discharged 20 additional patients who were successfully treated at its isolation centres, in addition to 39 others who had earlier been discharged, thus bringing the total number of patients with the clean bill of health, to 59.
But the governor demurred that five death cases were recorded among the Coronavirus patients, although, he said, “the rate of recovery is very heartwarming and encouraging and we pray that this pattern continues.”
“This leaves us with 70 active cases who are currently receiving care at our treatment centres,” he further disclosed.

Abiodun said the spike in the number of positive cases, especially in the last one week, “has presented us with the stark reality that community transmission is on the increase in our rural and urban communities in Ogun State.”

He also noted that the state government’s expanded testing capacity, currently at 450 per day, had enabled it to embark on aggressive testing, especially in communities with possible high prevalence, especially those in the border areas.

The governor, however, expressed his displeasure with the impunity with which some people have continued to flout restriction orders and other safety prescriptions.

“Some residents still come out in the public without the use of facemasks or use the facemasks in a manner that do not shield their mouths and noses.

“Motorcycle and tricycle riders still carry more than the approved number of passengers of one and two respectively; and drivers of taxi cab and passenger buses are also culpable in this flagrant violation of the extant guidelines.

“Our markets have also not fully complied with physical distancing and other measures to ensure the markets do not become the COVID-19 transmission centres,” he disclosed.

According to him, between May 4 and Friday, May 15, 108 violators of the restriction orders had been apprehended and prosecuted.

“They were promptly tried by the newly introduced mobile courts, with some of them being made to pay fine, while some are undergoing community service.

“In the same vein, 517 vehicles, 109 motorcycles and six tricycles were impounded for breaching the Presidential directive on curfew within the same period.

“In addition, security agencies also intercepted migrants from other states, who defied the ban on interstate travels, and promptly turned them back at our borders with other states,” he complained.

Abiodun, as such, charged traditional rulers and community leaders, especially those in the border communities, to assist the government by reporting the influx of strange faces into their respective communities, to the appropriate authorities, noting that the order on inter-state travels still subsists.

Related Articles