Abuja, 28th April 2020. The President of the ECOWAS Commission, H.E Jean-Claude Kassi Brou has given directives for the extension of the closure of ECOWAS Offices in Abuja and Lagos to the 4th of May 2020.

This follows the extension of the lockdown imposed by the Government of Nigeria, as part of measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the Country.

As a consequence of this directive, all staff of ECOWAS Institutions in Abuja and Lagos are to continue to stay and work from home until further notice while also following the guidelines and advisory on COVID-19 pandemic issued by WAHO and the Nigerian authorities.

Commending the Federal Government of Nigeria for taking the decision which has helped to contain the exponential spread of the disease, President Brou recalled the April 23rd, 2020 Extraordinary Summit on the fight against COVID-19 by the ECOWAS Heads of State and Government where concerns were expressed about the spread of COVID-19 in the region as well as its negative social, economic, financial and human security impact on all ECOWAS Member States.

As at 26th of April 2020, the cumulative number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the region stood at 7905 with 201 deaths, 2401 recoveries and 5294 active cases in all the 15 Member States while the number of confirmed cases in Abuja (the Federal Capital Territory) and Lagos were 141 and 731 respectively.