TheCable

The federal government says the lack of compliance with the directive on lockdown has fuelled the increase of COVID-19 cases.

As part of measures to check the spread of the disease, President Muhammadu Buhari had ordered a two-week lockdown on March 30 but he extended it by two weeks on April 13.

However, there have been complaints of non-compliance with the directive.

On Sunday, the Lagos state police command announced the arrest of 620 persons for violating the lockdown order. Among those arrested were 39 persons at a strip club.

At the briefing of the presidential task force on COVID-19, Olorunnibe Mamora, minister of state for health, attributed the high increase in COVID-19 cases to failure to comply with the order.

“The rising number of cases is of concern to all but there is evidence of increasing in country community transmission which to a large extent is as a result of non-compliance with lockdown orders and other non-medical interventions and other presumptive source of exposure to infections,” he said.

“The unauthorized treatment of highly contagious COVID-19 patients in private homes or unaccredited health facilities with the risk of infecting their families, other patients, visitors and health workers. These factors necessitated the active case finding strategy with the house to house and cluster testing which has contributed to increased case detection.”

Nigeria recorded over 1,000 COVID-19 cases during the lockdown.