The Director-General of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, Ifedayo Adetifa has in a press briefing on Friday canceled the compulsory use of nose mask in public.
Current situation
With the downward trend of Covid-19 cases, Nigeria, like other countries of the world, is easing precautionary measures, such as the mask mandate, in the fight against coronavirus. The latest directive by the Nigerian government encourages the use of masks indoors, while compulsory usage in public places becomes discretionary.
What they are saying
NCDC Boss, Mr. Ifedayo Adetifa, says Nigeria is implementing a four-tier pandemic response relaxation phase focusing on monitoring, vaccination, increased testing and genomic sequencing. He added that the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) on COVID-19 was adopting available evidence in revising its protocols.
By the numbers
The latest NCDC’s data on COVID-19 shows that the number of total confirmed cases in Nigeria stands at 255,415, discharged persons at 249,606, and deaths at 3,142. Lagos State leads the chart with 99,193 infected cases, followed by Abuja with 28,618 cases and Rivers State rounding up the top three with 16,636 cases. In March, only once did Nigeria record over 100 cases of the virus in a day.
What this means
With the optional use of nose masks in Nigeria, banks, organizations, businesses, institutions and others would be free to determine whether to mandate the use of nose masks in their facility or not.