Governor Fintiri orders lockdown in Adamawa over COVID-19 index case

The Adamawa State government led by Governor Ahmadu Fintiri has immediately ordered a total lockdown in the state for two weeks, days after recording its COVID-19 index case.

The lockdown which is the second the Governor would declare since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Nigeria was announced on Friday in a statement issued by Fintiri’s Director-General in charge of Media and Communications, Solomon Kumangar.

Kumangar in the statement said, “The Adamawa State Government has imposed a lockdown throughout the state for another period of 14 days with effect from midnight of Friday, April 24, 2020 and to end on Friday midnight of 8 May, 2020.

“Painful as the decision is, it is the aftermath of the first COVID-19 index case recorded in the state through a returnee from Kano.

“The Adamawa State Government is, therefore, left with no option than to go for lockdown in the overall interest of saving lives and to contain the spread.”

According to the statement, the government “has commenced contacts tracing and testing, which will be followed by isolation and treatment of positive cases.”

READ ALSO: Minister vows to force high-profile COVID-19 cases to seek treatment in isolation centres

This development comes after the Adamawa State Government on Thursday said it has started tracing 84 contacts of the state’s COVID-19 index case, a journalist, Kabir Awal.

This is just as Awal told reporters that he is optimistic that he would be discharged soon, saying he is already at the recovery stage.

According to state Chairman of COVID-19 Containment Committee, Bashiru Ahmad, 84 persons whom the index case came in contact with in Yola had been listed for tracing.

Bashiru stated this while speaking on an Africa Independent Television programme on Thursday.

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