Nigeria’s Kano lifts Covid-19 lockdown

Authorities in northern Nigeria’s biggest city Kano have lifted a threemonth lockdown imposed to contain a coronavirus outbreak linked to hundreds of deaths.

State governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje announced the lifting of the curfew in a broadcast, insisting the key trading hub had seen a sharp drop in infections.

“We can beat our chest and say we are winning the case and there is no longer any need for the lockdown,” Ganduje said late Thursday.

“There will be free movement for all.” Kano was put under lockdown in April after medics and cemetery workers reported a spike in “unexplained” deaths.

A team of health experts from the central government found that up to 600 fatalities may have been linked to the virus, but local officials put the figure at under half that number. The research was based on interviews with relatives of the deceased and medics but the figures were never added to the official tally as no tests were conducted.

The lockdown was later eased to only three days in a week after a drop in deaths and infection. Ganduje ordered senior government employees to resume work and said the state would enforce the wearing of face masks.