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Covid-19: Reduction in infections not flattening of curve — PTF

  • 32 states received N1b each for pandemic response
  • Testing: Taraba, Adamawa, Kogi, Nasarawa, Niger, Kebbi, Zamfara, Jigawa, Yobe performing below expectations– NCDC

THE Presidential Task Force on Coronavirus has said it would be erroneous to take the decline in infections rate as a flattening of the curve in the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.

National Coordinator of the PTF, Dr. Sani Aliyu said the committee was not convinced “the curve is being flattened. Such a decision would be reached when they were sure that the country is having enough aggressive testing.”

Aliyu, who confirmed that the ‘fatigue factor’ had already started setting in with Nigerians, as most people seemed to have become tired of the Covid-19 scenario, however, warned that this would be a wrong time to let the guards down against the spread of the disease.

He noted that that allowing fatigue at this time could sabotage the gains previously made in the national response, adding that this could lead to reintroduction of restrictions.

 “People all over the world are experiencing Covid-19 fatigue; we’re all tired. This has been on for seven months now in the country and almost ten months globally, since December. But unfortunately, while we are getting tired, the virus does not tire, it doesn’t realise that we are getting tired, in fact, to the virus, this is an opportunity to spread,” Aliyu said.

He continued, “Therefore, we must sustain our approach because of the impact the virus has, not only on our lives, but also on our livelihoods.

“For clarity, we are not convinced that we are flattening the curve, we can only be convinced, we can only confirm this; we can only know where we are with the infection rate with aggressive testing.

“Yesterday I believe we tested 1,200 plus samples, even though usually on weekends we tend to have low rate anyway, but this is so quite low.

The NPF coordinator reiterated that Nigeria’s capacity for testing is about 10,000 tests per day adding that number tested a day ago was clearly insufficient.

 “We all have a responsibility to avoid a second wave of the virus, just like we are seeing in other parts of the world now, by increase in cases that could result in additional restrictions, which could drag us back to where we were before and this will have an adverse impact on our economy. We must therefore avoid a similar situation happening here.”

He said the PTF had released N1 billion each to 32 states to boost the COVID-19 response, urging state governments to use the fund for the purposes it was released.

“We have released money to 32 state governments recently; each state government was given N1 billion, for the purpose of driving COVID-19 responses and we are asking them to please prioritise testing in addition to surveillance activities linked COVID-19.

“We urge state governments to please publicise their sample collection locations so that people can access them.”

However, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) listed Taraba, Adamawa, Kogi, Nasarawa, Niger, Kebbi, Zamfara, Jigawa and Yobe as the states that are performing below expectation on samples collection testing.

According to the NCDC, only three states – Lagos, Kano and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) – confidently say they are seeing a decline in infection rates in their domains because they have tested the highest number of samples so far.

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