No State Is Free From COVID-19 Yet, FG Declares
The Federal Government has dismissed reports that some states in Nigeria are now free of COVID-19 having discharged all patients in their isolation and treatment centres.
Some states had recently discharged all their COVID-19 patients, giving the impression that they are now free of the disease. Government also frowned at the general lack of compliance with COVID-19 safety protocols, lamenting how Nigerians now wear facemasks only to evade arrest rather than as a safety measure to halt the spread of the virus.
These were disclosed on Monday in Abuja during the daily briefing of the Presidential Taskforce PTF on Covid-19.
Director-General, Nigerian Centre for Disease Control NCDC, Dr Chikwe Iheakwazu said no state in the country can yet be declared Covid-19 free even if they have discharged all their Covid-19 patients.
“Some states were discharging patients and declaring themselves COVID-19 free. No state in Nigeria is COVID-19 free. Not one. No country in the world is COVID-19 free. Even New Zealand that is an Island state is still having new cases after a period of not having any. We cannot separate ourselves from the rest of the country. We live in a context.
“Viruses spread. It is the nature of them. So, right now, no state is COVID-19 free. That is why we have to keep doing this work that we are doing, testing people, finding out if they have it. Even if you are asymptomatic, you can spread it. That is why prevention is very important. If you cannot prevent, you detect and it is that detection we call laboratory testing which we have to scale up”, he stated.
National Coordinator of the Presidential Taskforce PTF on Covid-19, Dr Sani Aliyu lamented the low level of compliance with safety regulations.
He said; “Nigerians have continued to show persistent and remarkable lack of compliance with COVID-19 prevention protocols which is quite worrying.
“There is partial to total lack of compliance with facemasks and physical distancing protocols by the public. Many Nigerians only use their facemasks either to avoid security agents, that is where enforcement exists, or where they are told to do so.
“There is also significant disbelief in the dangers and impact of COVID-19. In parts of the Southeast where we did a recent survey, 60 per cent did not believe that Covid-19 was an issue. We clearly are not taking the Pandemic seriously enough,” he added.
Chairman of the PTF and Secretary to the Government of the Federation SGF, Mr Boss Mustapha, lamented that the disease burden of the country cannot exactly be known as Nigeria is currently under-testing.
He said; “Yesterday, 21st June 2020, Nigeria crossed the threshold of 20,000, with our total number rising to 20, 244 confirmed cases. This signified to the PTF that more testing has been carried out in recent weeks. However, we are not deluded that we are getting enough samples to test. I wish to remind all our citizens that the best strategy remains to test, detect, isolate and treat. That has accounted for the massive expansion in the laboratory network and testing centres.
“Our failure to take responsibility threatens the gains we have recorded which is not good for our large population. Let me give you a vivid picture of how this virus has spread across our nation by timelines: April 16 2020: 442 cases; May 16, 2020: 5,621 cases; June 16, 2020: 17, 148 cases. We really have a choice to make and there is an urgency of yesterday.
