By ABUJAH RACHEAL

The Federal Government is not contemplating another nationwide lockdown.

The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on Coronavirus (COVID-19) gave the assurance on Thursday in a statement it issued in Abuja.

The PTF, in the statement personally signed by its Chairman, Mr Boss Mustapha, stated “categorically“ that the Federal Government was not mulling over another lockdown as the PTF has never discussed it in any of its meetings.

Mustapha, also the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, said the PTF has not made any recommendation to that effect to President Muhammadu Buhari.

He said the attention of the task force was drawn to some misinformation being circulated in the social media to the effect that the Federal Government would order a nationwide lockdown this weekend.

“The PTF frowns at such unpatriotic misinformation which is capable of causing unnecessary panic and anxiety among the populace,” Mustapha said.

While urging Nigerians to disregard the misinformation, the PTF enjoined them to join hands with the Federal Government to contain the spread of the COVID-19 by adhering to the Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPI’s) as recommended by the task force. (NAN)

Meanwhile, Nigeria recorded 23 fresh COVID-19 related deaths and 1,479 new infections on Jan. 14, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has said.

The NCDC made this known on its official website on Thursday night.

The agency said that the 23 new deaths brought the nation’s death toll to 1, 405.

It said the 1, 479 newly registered infections were reported in the last 24 hours across the country, adding that the nation’s confirmed cases now stand at 105, 478.

NCDC said the 1, 479 COVID-19 new infections were reported from 24 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

According to NCDC, Lagos takes the lead with 697 new infections, followed by FCT with 201, Nasarawa - 80 and Plateau recorded 74 cases.

Other states with new cases are: Rivers - 72, Edo - 46, Adamawa - 43, Osun- 39, Akwa Ibom- 35, Delta - 31, Anambra - 27, Oyo - 24, Kano - 21, Abia - 19, Enugu-19, Ogun-18, Sokoto-12, Bauchi-seven, Taraba- seven, Ekiti- four, Gombe- four, Imo- four, Bayelsa- two, Jigawa- two and Zamfara- one.

“As at 14th January 2021, there are 105, 478 confirmed cases of #COVID19 in Nigeria, 83, 830 discharged and 1,405 dead.

“Our discharges today include 642 community recoveries in Lagos State, 312 in Oyo State and 99 in Plateau State managed in line with guidelines.

“A breakdown of cases by state can be found via http://covid19.ncdc.gov.ng,” it said.

NCDC said that a multi-sectoral national Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) activated at Level 3, was coordinating response activities nationwide.

Meanwhile, the NCDC with support from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), have activated a short code– “6232”.

“This number has been introduced as a means for the public to contact NCDC’s Connect Centre and access verified information on COVID-19 and other infectious diseases.

“The short code is a toll free and easy-to-remember number, which means that all calls to NCDC through ‘6232’ are free of charge.

“This is to ensure all Nigerians have access to verified information on infectious diseases.

“In 2016, NCDC established its Connect Centre as a critical aspect of its event-based surveillance and risk communications strategy.

“Over the years, this has been used for the response to infectious disease outbreaks such as Lassa fever, monkeypox, yellow fever, cerebrospinal meningitis etc,” it said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that in week one of 2021, the number of new confirmed cases increased to 9,940 from 5,733 in week 53 of 2020, these were reported in 34 states and the FCT.

The number of discharged cases increased to 4,986 from 4,010 in week 53. These were reported in 27 states and FCT.

Cumulatively, since the outbreak began in week 9, 2020, there have been 1,358 deaths reported with a case fatality rate (CFR) of 1.5%.

The number of reported deaths in the last one week were from 16 states and the FCT were 47.

The numbers of inbound international travellers at Nigerian airports were 18,632 compared with 19,018 in week 53.

While in week one, numbers of international travellers with a positive result were 817 compared to 62 from Week 53, and Lagos inbound cases were not included in Week one. (NAN)

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