President Muhamadu Buhari will make some very difficult decisions next week about the lockdown occasioned by the coronavirus pandemic, Director-General, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Chikwe Ihekweazu has said.
He said this in Katsina on Monday when he visited Governor Aminu Masari to see the state’s preparedness for COVID 19.
The audio of the discussion by the duo was obtained yesterday by our correspondent.
Ihekweazu disclosed that the president was scheduled to join the governors’ forum teleconference meeting to discuss some of the decisions.
“There will be some very difficult decisions to be made around how to restart part of the economy, what to restart and what not to restart.
“The truth is we cannot go back to pre-COVID, pre-lockdown, we’ll have to make some adjustments on how we engage, how we work, pray, relax and so some businesses. All these are difficult decisions that have to be made.
“Until we get vaccines, none of us is alone in this, every country is struggling with this, it is finding a balance between doing the needful and opening the economy so that people can survive, we cannot shut down everything,” he added.
In his remarks, Masari expressed concern that young men from Katsina State, scattered all over Nigeria, especially Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja, were returning home avoiding official entry points because of the vastness of the land.
He said his government had involved traditional rulers so that returnees could be identified and quarantined for 14 days.
Masari said those returning through official borders were being recorded and data taken to quarantine them too.
