The Presidential Task Force (PTF) has revealed the 22 Local Government Areas contributing over 95 percent of the new cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) in Nigeria.
It said having analysed the pandemic in the country, 22 high burdened Local Government Areas within 13 states in the country had been identified.
The National Incident Manager (NIM) of the PTF COVID-19 pandemic, Dr Mukhtar Muhammad, said this on Monday in Abuja, during the PTF briefing on COVID-19.
He said that the 22 high burdened local government areas within 13 states in the country, mostly in the cities of the state capitals contributed over 95 percent of the new cases recorded in the last six weeks.
According to him, the states and local governments are Nkanu West (Enugu); Abuja Municipal (FCT), Gwagwalada FCT, Gombe (Gombe); Chikun (Kaduna), Kaduna North, Kaduna South; Nassarawa (Kano), Katsina (Katsina), Ilorin South (Kwara), Ilorin West (Kwara), Eti-Osa (Lagos), Ikeja (Lagos), Kosofe (Lagos), Lagos Mainland (Lagos), Keffi (Nasarawa), (Lafia), Nasarawa, Ibadan North (Oyo), Jos North (Plateau), Jos South (Plateau), Port-Harcourt, (Rivers) and Wamako (Sokoto).
He said, “The PTF was working currently to provide support to various states through their task forces towards contextualizing and implementing the regulation signed by President Muhammadu Buhari.
“As mentioned earlier, the regulation covers places of worship, public transport, banks, workplaces, sports and so on and so forth.
“Notable features of the regulations include: Restrictions on Gatherings, mandatory wearing face masks in public and above all the powers of prosecution by law enforcement agencies.
“We expect governments, institutions, owners of private buildings and other regulators to enforce these regulations. For example, putting a notice of no mask no entry or no mask no service, to enlightened the users of your services.
“Pertinent strategies will be adopted and they will include mobile court on strategic locations such as markers, motor parks and it is expected that every law enforcement agencies will monitor complaints or their staff within which they supervise.
“We are providing advisory to the states to develop community engagement strategy and risk communication strategies to sensitize the public on compliance to these regulations and to promote behavioural changes.
“Last week we started with the FCT, where we had a very fruitful meeting with the Minister and the stakeholders of the FCT. We are currently developing the implementation plan and the timeline for which the FCT Taskforce will commence operations all over the FCT.”
