By Prince Osuagwu

A health-based non-governmental organisation, Castle Noble International, on Monday, advised the Federal Government to reverse itself on the order lifting restrictions on movement over after the COVID-19 lockdown.

It said the first day of the new order had shown Nigeria could be worse than Italy if people are allowed to flood the streets the way it happened on Monday.

The NGO said it was not unmindful of the socio-economic dilemma the one-month lockdown pushed the country into, but that life is more precious than the economy.

President of the group, Mrs Ite Donald, said looking at what happened on Monday, the decision of the government to relax the lockdown was a dangerous move, noting that the lockdown provided the most effective way of containing the virus and cautioned that early lifting of restriction may cause its resurgence.

According to Donald, “as a rule, we are not given to reacting to government policies but this is one case that will tell so much on the lives of Nigerians.

“Immediately after the lockdown order was lifted, we deployed our members across the country to monitor the effects and what we have seen today(on Monday), with the way and manner people are throwing caution to the winds, the country will record a surge in positive cases that we may not be able to handle.

“Throughout the country, the photographs depict an alarming breakdown of guidelines and this will have untold effects. For a country with almost a sorry healthcare mentality, recording the kind of surge, or even worse than Italy did, will be suicidal.

“Therefore, we call on the government to reverse itself, for the general good of the citizenry. It will not be a shameful act, rather it should even be seen as great care and being proactive against a situation that can drag the entire nation to the woods.”

Corroborating Donald, Founder of the group on the COVID-19 lockdown, Mr. Chidi Success, said the lockdown has reduced the coronavirus incidence by up to 90% due to limited movement, public showing, and person-to-person contacts.”

He also noted that the lockdown gave the government time to prepare in terms of protocols, manpower and resources even though a lot more still needed to be done.

ALSO READ: Police vow to be aggressive in Ogun to enforce curfew order

He advised all states that have introduced the COVID-19 lockdown measures to use the time to attack the virus, instead of calling it off.

He said: “The Federal Government should use this opportunity to train and deploy healthcare and public health workforce, implement a system for community tracing to track every suspected case, ramp up capacity and availability of testing, identify, adapt and provide facilities needed for treating isolated patients.”

The group advocates the Indian model, which sees the government using the lockdown period to create 586 dedicated COVID-19 facilities with 1,04, 613 isolation beds and 11, 836 ICU beds to tackle the evolving health crisis.

Still on the COVID-19 lockdown, one of the board members, Mustapha Ojo, said: “Continuation of the shutdown may help in tracing more potential cases, while saving others from being infected.

“We urge the Federal Government of Nigeria to evolve ways of assisting states to get the required equipment.”

Vanguard