COVID-19: Nigeria Trying Hard To Avoid Another Lockdown, Says Health Minister

The Federal Government on Thursday said it is trying hard to prevent another lockdown, even as fears continue to mount over the rising cases of COVID-19 infections in Africa’s most populous nation.

On Wednesday, Nigeria’s infections crossed the 126, 000 mark, out of which 100,365 have recovered, but the government has insisted it would only push for a lockdown of the country as the last resort.

“The lockdown is always a last resort. It is not the first step that the government takes. If you hear of the countries which had to do lockdown –  the UK and many European countries –  it was because they were getting figures that were running virtually amok,” the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire noted on Channels Television’s Politics Today.

“So, the consequence of a lockdown on the economy including the social consequences are such that you do not take that (lockdown) as a first step. So, we are trying very hard to see that it does not come to a lockdown.”

– Channelstv