This follows Monday’s prevalent noncompliance with the protocols as Nigerians got some relief after weeks on lockdown.
The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on Coronavirus has disclosed its displeasure that there was a breach of social distancing with overcrowding in public places, interstate movement and not wearing of face masks.
This follows Monday’s prevalent noncompliance with the protocols as Nigerians got some relief after weeks on lockdown.
“Today, we might forgive a little bit because it was the first day. However, we will have infections because of what happened today (yesterday), no doubt about that.
“But what is more important is how we can learn from the mistakes of today (yesterday) into tomorrow and into next tomorrow, so that by Friday, hopefully they will have normalised some of these things.
“The challenge for us as a society is how we now organise ourselves to mitigate this risk to limit transmission from each other. We don’t want an explosion of new infections.
“But if we do have that explosion, there will be almost no choice left for the leadership of the country than to ask all of us to go back into our homes.
“For the benefits of having a few hours a day of coming out and reopening parts of the economy, there is a price to pay and that price is that we organise ourselves to do this strictly,” Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Chikwe Ihekweazu, said. He spoke during the daily briefing of the task force in Abuja yesterday.
National Coordinator of the task force, Dr. Aliyu Sani, also explained that the easing of the lockdown is in no way a license to relax our self-protection measures.
Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, exhorted Nigerians to be more cautious as countries who eased or lifted restrictions, suffered an increase in new cases.
He advised that Nigerians need to protect, not only themselves, but each other and their loved ones. They need to make sacrifices today for a better tomorrow.
PTF chairman, Boss Mustapha expressed concern that crowds at the banks milled around without being cautious to possible spread of Coronavirus.
He called on banks to help in solving the crowd problem by ensuring that their online platforms were set right and Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) loaded with cash.
Mustapha also pointed out that state governments and security agencies had been directed to ensure strict compliance by corporate organisations to the regulations for the current phase of national response.