By Segun Olanrewaju
The Kaduna State government first issued a warning that it might impose another lockdown on the state considering the recent increase in cases of COVID-19 in the state. The Commissioner of Health, Dr Amina Mohammed-Baloni, gave the warning at a press conference on Saturday in Kaduna. She said that there had been a rise in cases of the virus in the state lately, adding that if it continued, government would have no option than to impose another lockdown.
Dr Amina said that public spaces including schools, markets, offices and places of worship may be temporarily closed if people failed to observe COVID-19 preventive protocols. Since the declaration, other states have since joined the race to lockdown. Aftermath of declaration of positivity to the disease by some officials, including state governors, the states have proceeded to ban aspects of trade, worship, among other preliminary measures that may soon give way to fuller-blown bans.
Position of WHO [World Health Organization]
A World Health Organization’s special envoy on COVID-19 had earlier urged world leaders this week to stop “using lockdowns as your primary control method.” “We in the World Health Organization do not advocate lockdowns as the primary means of control of this virus,” Dr. David Nabarro was quoted to have said. “The only time we believe a lockdown is justified is to buy you time to reorganize, regroup, rebalance your resources, protect your health workers who are exhausted, but by and large, we’d rather not do it.”
“WHO has also issued Safe Aids practices in the context of COVID-19 and I urge us all to access and disseminate.’’ Nabarro referred to ‘several of the negative consequences lockdowns have caused across the world, including devastating tourism industries and increased hunger and poverty’.
“Just look at what’s happened to the tourism industry in the Caribbean, for example, or in the Pacific because people aren’t taking their holidays,” he said. “Look what’s happened to smallholder farmers all over the world. Look what’s happening to poverty levels. It seems that we may well have a doubling of world poverty by next year. We may well have at least a doubling of child malnutrition.”
‘’Earlier this week, thousands of medical health experts signed their names to a petition calling for the end of coronavirus lockdowns, citing the “irreparable damage” they’ve caused. “As infectious disease epidemiologists and public health scientists, we have grave concerns about the damaging physical and mental health impacts of the prevailing COVID-19 policies, and recommend an approach we call Focused Protection,” read the petition, known as the Great Barrington Declaration. “Current lockdown policies are producing devastating effects on short and long- term public health.”
‘’In the United States, lockdowns have been tied to increased thoughts of suicide from children, a surge in drug overdoses, an uptick in domestic violence, and a study conducted in May concluded that stress and anxiety from lockdowns could destroy seven times the years of life that lockdowns potentially save.’’
Gov Sanwo-Olu Speaks from Isolation Center
The Executive Governor of Lagos State, spoke from the Isolation via his twitter handle @jidesanwoolu ‘We cannot afford another total lockdown so I enjoin us to keep observing the prescribed protocols and the required lifestyle adjustments that will help us enter 2021 stronger, healthier and safer. Let’s do this for our families and friends.
Let’s by our actions demonstrate that we truly love our neighbours. Let us demonstrate awareness about the existence of COVID-19 in our communities and live right to deliberately reduce and eliminate its spread. I wish you the best of this season and pray that God Almighty will continue to protect us’.
