Statistics from the Ministry of Health released on Thursday, April 16, 2020, indicate that the federation has 14 confirmed cases of the Novel Coronavirus, some 30 days after the virus officially entered the country on March 18, 2020.
During today’s (April 17, 2020) Emergency Sitting of the National Assembly, Senator in the Federal Parliament and Minister of State for Health, the Honourable Wendy Phipps, noted that the easing of some emergency restrictions next week such as the 24-hour lock down would be handled very carefully.
“What we do not want is to find ourselves in a foolish state of comfort where we tell ourselves we don’t have any deaths, we are flattening the curve etc. and then to drop our guard, open up our borders including to countries where the virus is endemic and then we find ourselves looking down the barrel of a second wave with community transmission,” Senator Phipps stated.
She described such a scenario as “trying to put out a forest fire on a hot day without rain.”
The parliamentarian added that the war against COVID-19 “calls for unity of purpose, an all of society response” as the global pandemic transcends politics and socio-economic tags that exist.
Senator Phipps stated that the Ministry of Health, and the Cabinet, “would like to see the best practices that have already taken root in the federation, in terms of social distancing, hand hygiene, respiratory hygiene etc… will move forward with us” essentially becoming the new normal.
The senator fully endorsed the Resolution debated today that allowed the government to extend the emergency powers past 21 days. The emergency powers were enacted last month to curb the spread of COVID-19.
