The Abia State government has declared Aba a red zone and epicentre of COVID-19 following the number of positive samples emanating from the commercial city.
The Commissioner for Information, Mr. John Okiyi-Kalu disclosed this on Monday while answering questions during a phone-in programme on COVID-19 update in the State.
Abia, which recorded 15 new cases on Sunday, moved to the 16th position with 166 confirmed infections, on the log of states with highest coronavirus cases in Nigeria.
Out of the number, only three persons were reportedly nursed back to health and released from isolation centres which Kalu said compounded Abia’s case with very few spaces left for confirmed cases.
Kalu decried Aba the nonchalant attitude of the residents to the pandemic, adding that they vehemently refused to obey government’s directives on COVID-19 including wearing of face masks and observing social/physical distancing.
He said such an attitude threw the city into grave danger.
He also blamed churches and mosques for refusing to adhere to simple directives or telling adherents what is right to do.
The commissioner noted that the report coming from Aba Central Mosque, on Hospital Road, is very dangerous and worrisome for everyone in the COVID-19 era.
He said that the Abia Inter-Ministerial Committee on COVID-19 had directed the Aba South Local Government Transition Committee Chairman to directly enforce regulations at the Mosque on Friday and during other prayer sessions.
Kalu further said that many health workers in Aba might have been infected with Coronavirus as a result of attending to infected people unknowingly without full protection.
“At the moment, Abia is having more samples than any other state in the South East, which is good, because unless we identify where this problem is coming from, we may not be able to deal with it.
“We’ve done our mapping by local government, and one thing is clear, the majority of the new cases are coming from the Aba area, and it’s alarming.
“It looks like all the sensitisation, all the efforts made by the media, have not worked because Aba people continued to violate the regulations with regard to face masks wearing, and social distancing.