Buhari Will Determine When to Lift Lockdown, Says Nigeria's Health Minister

In a briefing today Nigeria’s Minister of Health Dr Osagie Ehanire, has said that President Buhari will be determining when to lift the lockdown. This follows the announcement on April 13th of an extension of the lockdown in Lagos, Abuja and Ogun states.

"The President in his wisdom will decide if the lockdown will be lifted," he said.

The minister said that the decision to extend COVID-19 lockdown was tailored according to the needs of every country.

"We do think that the restriction of movement limits significantly the spread of the virus. The models we have seen show that we have not gotten to the peak yet."

The Minister also touched on the sharp rise in cases in Kano noting that his Ministry would be sending a fact-finding mission there to establish what could be done to improve the state’s response to covid-19 including surveillance, testing, case finding, contact tracing and isolation. Kano State presently do not have the strength that Lagos has, their human resources are doing their best, but there is also need for re-enforcement.

Finally the Health Minister confirmed that 40 health workers have tested positive for the virus.

At this moment there are 1.182 known infections in Nigeria. Currently 35 people have died, 925 people are still sick and 222 people have recovered from the coronavirus in Nigeria.