Nigeria extends coronavirus lockdown in key cities for two weeks
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has announced a 14-day extension to a lockdown in Lagos, Abuja and Ogun states to combat the corona pandemic

In a televised address on Monday, Buhari said "it has become necessary to extend the current restriction of movement" that was set to expire later in the day.

Initial 14-day lockdowns in the three areas began on March 30.

There are currently 323 confirmed cases of the virus in Nigeria with 71 percent of them registered in Lagos and the capital territory of Abuja. Ten people have died so far.

"It is a matter of life and death," Buhari said of the nation's response. "The repercussions of any premature end to the lockdown action are unimaginable."

Economic hardship
Nigeria, with 200 million people, is Africa's most populous nation. Some 20 million reside in the megacity of Lagos.

Health experts have raised alarms over the impact of a major coronavirus outbreak, warning that the country's unprepared and underfunded healthcare system could quickly become overwhelmed.

The extension of the lockdown is expected to add to the hardship of millions of Nigerians living hand-to-mouth, often on less than one dollar a day.

Buhari said he was "fully aware of the great difficulties experienced especially by those who earn a daily wage".

"But despite these realities, we must not change the restrictions," he added.

The government has pledged a series of support measures to ease the financial pain for the most vulnerable, but there have been widespread complaints that not enough is being done for those facing hunger.

"The vast majority of Nigerians depend on daily wages, they have to go out to get money and buy food to put it on the table for their families," Al Jazeera's Ahmed Idris, reporting from the capital, Abuja, said.

"For the next two weeks, they are going to stay at home with no work and no chance of getting money."

Meanwhile, police said on Monday that they were bolstering forces in Lagos and Ogun after almost 200 suspects were arrested amid fears of a spike in crime during the lockdown.

Buhari said compliance with the stay-at-home order and other restrictions introduced by state governors across the country had been "generally good".

But he cautioned that "a large proportion of new infections are now occurring in our communities

WE ARE APPEALING FOR THE AVAILABILITY OF CASH AT THE ATM"- FG TO BANKS
- 15th Apr 2020, 01:04am
The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, has spoke to banks in the nation to keep on giving skeletal administrations to Nigerians.

This comes 24 hours after President Muhammadu Buhari broadened the underlying fourteen day lockdown by 14 days.

PTF's National Coordinator, Dr. Sani Aliyu, who made the intrigue during the day by day media preparation on Tuesday in Abuja, reviewed that there was an exception for banks to offer skeletal types of assistance.

"At the point when we executed the end of development approach fourteen days back, we made an exception for banks to be permitted to take part in skeletal administrations and following that, the money related specialists discharged extra rules to the banks.

"We are speaking to the banks to keep on offering money related types of assistance, particularly the accessibility of money at the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) and skeletal administrations inside the financial corridors.

"What is significant for us is for banks to agree to our recommendation regarding diminishing mass social affairs, having hand disinfectants at the passageway point, checking of temperature and ensuring that they watch the physical removing measures that we have exhorted," Aliyu said.