Coronavirus: Nigeria extends lockdowns, as authorities deny wave of deaths is due to Covid-19

President promises ‘gradual’ easing of restrictions from next week – as investigation begins into pneumonia deaths in northern state

Nigeria has extended strict lockdowns in Lagos and the capital Abuja for another week, after a wave of recent deaths raised fears of links to coronavirus.

President Muhammadu Buhari announced a new two-week lockdown in the northern state of Kano, where doctors have reported a spike in fatal cases of pneumonia. The president promised a “phased and gradual” easing of restrictions from 4 May.

The Nigerian newspaper The Daily Trust reported the “mysterious” recent deaths of around 150 people in Kano, prompting calls for an investigation into whether they were related to the coronavirus pandemic.

The state government denied the claims, and said the pneumonia fatalities were caused by complications from hypertension, diabetes, meningitis and acute malaria and not Covid-19. Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje said health authorities were now looking into the deaths.

The official number of coronavirus cases in Kano have risen to 77, putting it behind only Lagos and Abuja. There has been only one confirmed death from the virus in the northern state.

Ibrahim Musa, a doctor working at a federal hospital in Kano, told The Guardian: “Pneumonia cases have been rising but that is not being recorded as Covid-19 because they are not testing. The pattern emerging widely is that elderly people are dying more.”

It raises fears that outbreaks of the virus in Africa could be going undetected. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that the continent could see as many as 10 million cases in three to six months – a number which would overwhelm health services.

On the Kano lockdown, Mr Buhari said: “The federal government shall deploy all the necessary human, material and technical resources to support the state in controlling and containing the pandemic.”

It comes amid rising tension in Nigeria’s largest city Lagos, home to more than 20 million people, as dozens of people rioted near an oil refinery in protest at the restrictions on work and movement. Police arrested 51 people, according to local media reports.

Four-week lockdowns in both Lagos and the federal capital territory of Abuja had been due to end on Monday – before the president announced measures would continue for another week.​

Mr Buhari said he accepted the lockdowns had come at a “very heavy economic cost”, stripping many citizens of their livelihoods.

“No country can afford the full impact of a sustained lockdown while awaiting the development of vaccines,” the president added – promising a gradual easing of measures in Lagos and Abuja from Monday.

Millions of Nigeria’s 200 million citizens live on daily wages, and the lockdown has left many without money to buy food.

Confirmed cases of the new virus across Nigeria have roughly quadrupled since a lockdown extension was announced in mid-April. Most of the 1,273 cases and 40 deaths have been concentrated in Lagos and Abuja.