6th August, 2020
By Abujah Racheal
Federal civil servants on Grade Level 12 and above would now resume full work hours from 8a.m. to 4p.m. while the rest were to continue to stay at home.
The Coordinator of Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Dr Sani Aliyu, said this on Thursday while speaking on the new changes in the extended phase two of eased lockdown.
He also said that the national curfew from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. will remain as the phase two eased lockdown is extended by four weeks.
President Muhammadu Buhari approved the retention of current phase of National response to COVID-19 for another four weeks with modifications.
The coordinator also gave the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) the green light to start planning its resumption for future phases after the second phase.
He said that daycare, primary, secondary, tertiary institutions remain closed, while recreational parks could open for supervised physical exercise.
He stated that only 20 people were allowed at funerals, weddings and other essential gatherings.
The coordinator said that strict compliance with COVID-19 protocols was all about behavioural change.
“As you are aware, we are currently in phase two of the eased lockdown which started on the 1st of June 2020.
“Since then, we have made several minor adjustments to accommodate the gradual reopening of the economy as well as to address key challenges in the response.
“We have made an assessment of the current phase and as mentioned by the chairman, we have made recommendations to Mr President to retain the current phase of the response with minor changes to address some of the challenges we see on the economic, social, political and health fronts.
“The assessment that we did has revealed that there’s a lot of non-compliance with our non-pharmaceutical interventions, a lot of disbelief, skepticism, negativity with regards to the COVID pandemic.