Mr Godwin Obaseki, The Edo State Governor has announced a dusk-to-dawn curfew with effect from tomorrow, April 20, 2020, curtailing the movement of people throughout the state from 7pm -6am as part of the measures to curtail the spread of the novel Coronavirus in Edo State.
In a broadcast earlier today, Governor Godwin disclosed that the curfew will be reviewed 10days after when increasing screening and testing of Edo State citizens have been accurately achieved.
According to Governor Godwin Obaseki, the curfew effectiveness is part of the addinal precautionary measures to ensure that people stay at home to halt and prevent further spread of the novel Coronavirus.
He said, We realised we need to practice more social distancing at a period like this. However, we are observing additional precautionary measures to ensure our citizens stay at home.
Consequently, with effect from 20th April, an order prohibiting movement of people in Edo State from 7pm to 6am. This order will be reviewed after 10days when we have increased our screening and testing of our citizens. The security agencies, by this directive are mandated to enforce total compliance by ensuring that movement is restricted at night across the State.
Governor Godwin Obaseki announced that University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) testing centre is ready as Edo State Sets for 1000 tests daily. He said UBTH centre is ready with facilities to commence operation, in the next few days they will begin tests for 1000 residents of Edo State daily.
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Governor Obaseki said that healthworkers treating the virus in the state are provided with special allowances and life-insurance just to serve as motivation to work on the frontline in the combat against the novel Coronavirus.
He said, “ Screening and testing is key if we are to understand and have the required information to curtail the spread of the virus. Therefore, our goal is to screen a minimum of 500,000 of our citizens. The first of the proposed 100 screening centres started operations last week in Oredo Local Government Area.
Six of these centres are Public Primary Healthcare Centers, and 4 are in private hospitals. This would be scaled up to all the the 18 local government areas in the state within the next 2 weeks.
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Governor Obaseki also said “I am glad to inform you that the testing centre at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) is now ready. We have begun trials tests under the guidance of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC); we expect it will commence full operations this week. We have also taken delivery of another PCR testing machine currently being installed at the Edo Specialist Hospital which we hope will also be ready within the next 2-weeks. This will give us the capacity to perform up to 1000 tests daily in Edo State. With massive screening and testing we will have sufficient information which is required to direct the decisions for proper management and control of the scourge”
According to Governor Godwin, “We will continue to impose a partial lockdown for now and not totally shutdown the economy because of the untold economic hardships which a total shutdown will cause to our citizens. We will review our decisions based on the evidence obtained from our mass screening and testing.
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The Governor continued, “I want to reiterate that the ban on street trading, which was announced by the Deputy Governor, Rt. Hon. Comrade Philip Shaibu, is in the best interest of our people. This move is aimed at ensuring that all trading activities in this period is concentrated in the primary and secondary school premises, where we are strictly enforcing the social distancing policy as well as the hygiene and safety precautions, which will slow the spread of COVID-19”
“Once again, try to get screened at any of our several screening centres across the state and where required, you will be tested for confirmation. Always wash your handa regularly with soap under running water and use alchol-based sanitizers. Stay at home; but if you must go out, wear facemasks and avoid gatherings of more than 20-persons.