By Dele Moses, Ilorin
Kwara State Government has said that only the neighbourhood markets are now allowed to operate to check community transmission of COVID-19 in the state.
The government while imposing total lockdown on the state last week had allowed all the markets to open between 10 am and 2 pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
When the markets were thus opened last Monday residents trooped out in very large numbers keeping roads busy with vehicular movements and flooding markets with little or non observance of the social distancing directive of the government.
The government, in order to prevent recurence of this situation, said markets would no longer be opened on these days except only the neighbourhood ones and shops in the neighborhood
The state Deputy Governor who doubles as the chairman of the Technical Committee on COVID-19, Kayode Alabi, while addressing newsmen on Tuesday said the neighbourhood market should operate on the fields of schools in their vicinities or any other open space in their areas with strict compliance with the social distancing directive.
He said vehicular movement is totally banned in the state so that there would be no such movement on the three market days.
Alabi however explained that vehicles earlier exempted such as those carrying food and pharmaceutical products and trucks passing through from northern region to Lagos vice versa remained exempted.
The Deputy Governor said that the four cases of COVID-19 confirmed in the state are two males and two females and explained that while three of them showed no symptoms the only one showing them was in stable condition.
He said of the latter two that made the case four, one contacted it from the state index case while the other was a patient at the University of of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH) who has now been moved to the isolation centre.
Alabi explained that 29 of the 42 people tested confirmed negative while nine results were still being awaiting.
