Ekiti May Extend Lockdown – Governor Fayemi

Governor Kayode Fayemi has said lockdown order in the state may be extended beyond April 27 in order to allow for effective tracing of persons who had direct contact with the new case.

The governor also said security would be beefed up at the state’s boundaries with other neighboring states to check the rate of people sneaking into Ekiti during the lockdown.

A statement quoted the governor as saying that Ekiti has 29 suspected cases, two confirmed cases, and 49 contact tracing persons of interest.

He said:

“Due to this new case, government may have to consider further extension of the lockdown at least until all possible direct and indirect contacts of this woman have been traced and placed in self-isolation as a minimum period of incubation is 14 days for every new infection.

“As widely acknowledged, COVID-19 is spread from person to person. The three cases so far recorded in Ekiti State were from people who contacted it elsewhere but incubated and manifested while they were within our state. This underscores the need for every one of us to respect and accept the lockdown order and principles of social distancing.

“We are fully aware that such measures will cause some hardship and inconvenience to many citizens. But this is a matter of life and death; if we look at the dreadful daily toll of deaths in some countries and even the increasing rate of the virus in Nigeria.”

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control has apologised for announcing that Ekiti recorded a new case on Saturday.

It said the total confirmed COVID-19 cases in Nigeria is 541 and not 542 as previously announced.

NCDC tweeted, “Yesterday (Saturday), we erroneously reported one new case in Ekiti. This was wrong and was caused by an error in the verification process.

“Therefore, as of April 18 2020, there are 541 confirmed cases, 166 discharged and 19 deaths.
Ekiti State has three confirmed cases, not four.”