By Asmau Ahmad
The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 has cautioned state governors against closing down treatment centres, due to the rising cases of COVID-19 in the country.
Chairman of the PTF and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha, issued the warning while speaking at the national briefing in Abuja.
He said as the country make progress on the Non pharmaceuticals Intervention (NPI), plus Vaccines phase, the state governments should not close down their treatment centres.
“Rather they should keep them running efficiently and smoothly because the cases of infections are rising and we must intensify our efforts to support the public sector laboratories with critical reagents.
“The PTF expects the leadership of all Federal tertiary health institutions to raise their level of testing and turnaround for results,” he said.
The SGF further stated that in 2021, it’s going to be vaccines plus NPIs.
He said: “As we commence the process of adding vaccines to the task, we wish to reaffirm that all aspects of the pronouncement of President Muhammadu Buhari will be approached with the seriousness they deserve.
“New guidelines have been developed and will be unveiled by the National Coordinator. The task is huge but our will is stronger this time. Accordingly, the PTF is working with the relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) on regulatory and certification issues before we go further on the subject of vaccines.”
On the new strain of COVID-19 in United Kingdom and South Africa, the SGF said the PTF is aware of the global conversation on the new strain of virus discovered in the UK.
“We had assured Nigerians that our experts working with the WHO are studying the variant strain and shall make a statement at the appropriate time.”
On travel ban, he said Nigeria will continue to evaluate the actions taken by various countries on international travel especially from the UK, South Africa and some very high burden areas.
“We note that some of the countries that initially banned flights have now adopted the requirement already in place in Nigeria. We have also weighed the security, economic and social implications of a full ban especially when we consider the situation in our neighboring countries and the ECOWAS as a whole.
“The PTF shall increase measures pertaining to those high burden countries to scale down the possibilities of importation,” he added.
The PTF chairman also noted that they are working assiduously on the turnaround time for receiving test results.
“We are working with the NCDC to improve on this. Nigerians should expect improvement very soon. For us on the PTF, we thank President Buhari for the confidence he has in our ability to deliver on the mandate and we rededicate ourselves to more work.
“The successes recorded by the PTF in managing the control of the pandemic since March 2020 could never have been possible without the support of our partners, being the media that took the message to Nigerians.
“We also thank the National Assembly, Sub-National entities, private sector coalition, international community, development partners, well-meaning Nigerians, security agencies and our frontline workers.”
