Chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, Mr Boss Mustapha, on Wednesday, attributed the low figures recorded in the areas of testing and confirmed cases of COVID-19 over the past few days to the public holiday declared to mark this year’s Eid-el-Kabir.
Newsmen gathered that Mustapha also identified fatigue on the part of workers as part of the factors responsible for the low figures.
Mustapha, who is also the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, stated these in an interview with State House correspondents after he led members of the task force to present its interim report to the President Muhammadu Buhari, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He said testing would be increased in a couple of days with state and local government officials going into communities.
The SGF said, “If you noticed, as we celebrated those discharges, there has also been a decrease in the testing.
“In the last couple of days, we tested just barely 2,000 across the nation, but we have a testing capacity of much more thousands than 2,000.
“Another reason is that everybody is still in a Sallah mood, even the essential workers. Remember when I talked of fatigue, this is part of it.
“We have been doing this thing for the last three to four months; it gets to a point when you want to lay back and say we are already overcoming this. But I know that in the next couple of days, the testing will be rampant because people would have come out of the Sallah celebrations and come back to work.
Mustapha admitted that enforcement of guidelines had been lacking and appealed to state governments to ensure compliance so that the nation could go a long way.
He said COVID-19 had exposed the weaknesses of systems, not only the Nigerian system but also other countries like the American system.
“The American system, despite its 300 years of democracy, have been exposed by COVID-19. If not, how can a President be arguing with the mayor of a city as to who has authority over what happens? It means there is a big gap in that system,” he said.
Mustapha said the President was happy with the report presented and that he commended members of the task force for their efforts in creating awareness on the virus.
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