The declaration followed another fresh recorded another fresh case on Tuesday, bringing the total number of COVID-19 positive to four in the state.
”The blood samples of two people, who recently came in from Turkey, tested positive to Coronavirus. If such people were allowed to roam the streets of the metropolis, they will affect more people,” he said.
Ganduje made the declaration on Tuesday, evening shortly after addressing the Ulama and top members of his cabinet at Africa House on the dangers of COVID-19 and the need to adopt stringent measures to prevent further spread.
The governor, said, ”From Thursday, April 16, 2020, no going to Jumat mosque as all Muslims are mandated to pray in their homes. All markets would be shut as well as all marriage ceremonies.’ The lockdown would be total. I therefore appeal to all the good people of Kano to cooperate with the lockdown directive as it is for their own good.”
According to Ganduje, the stringent measure will check the spread of COVID-19 in the state. He said the government had no alternative but to adopt the measure “to protect the lives our people”.
He said, “Anybody, who is conscious of having the virus, should go to the hospital, where he or she would be referred to the isolation centre. ”
Earlier, the state Police Command had said it impounded over 84 tricycles that flouted the state government’s directives that tricycle operators should carry only one passenger as part of measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
The spokesman for the Kano State Police Command, DSP Abdullahi Kiyawa, who confirmed the arrest, said security operatives swung into action as soon as the state Governor, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, gave the directive on Saturday.
Also, the Kano Road and Traffic Agency had also, on Tuesday, relaxed its earlier order that a tricycle could take only one passenger. It declared that commercial tricycle operators had been allowed to take two passengers at a time.
In a statement by the spokesman of the agency, Nabulisu Na’isa, KAROTA explained that the decision followed a review of the conditions by its Managing Director, Baffa Danagundi, and the state Commissioner for Transportation, Hamisu Lawal.