President Muhammadu Buhari has signed an executive order that mandates the use of face mask in public places.

Boss Mustapha the Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, during the  Wednesday briefing of the  task force said the order was in a bid to further contain the spread of the virus.

The President signed the executive order on Tuesday, exercising the power conferred on him by Section 4 of the Quarantine Act, Cap. Q2 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2010.

A part of the executive order stipulates that no person will be allowed into markets, mall, supermarket, shop, restaurants, hotels, event centres, gardens, leisure parks, recreation centres, motor parks, fitness centre or any other similar establishment “except he is wearing a face covering that covers the nose and mouth, he washes his hands or cleaned the hands using hand sanitiser approved by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, and his body temperature has been checked.”

The executive order also directed that “anybody found to have a body temperature above 38 degrees Celsius should be denied entry and advised to immediately seek medical attention.”

Mandated by the executive order is a two-meter physical distancing between persons at all times.

The document also provides that “no gathering of more than 50 persons shall hold in an enclosed space, except for religious purposes, in which case the gathering shall not exceed 50 per cent capacity of the space.”

The executive order comes in the heat of the upsurge in fresh COVID-19 cases.

 NCDC, Nigeria’s public health agency had in the past weeks continued to record over a 1,000 fresh cases daily.