FG says Nigeria still in danger as coronavirus kills 1,002

The Federal Government says the 52,227 cases of COVID-19 and the 1,002 COVID-19 fatalities Nigeria recorded on Sunday remind the nation of the dangers it still faces.

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Chairman, Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, said this in Abuja yesterday at the briefing of the PTF.

“We wish to restate that these records are not just numbers as they vividly remind us of the dangers that we still face. May the souls of all those that have lost the battle against CVID-19 rest in peace.

“The PTF has however continued to study the Case Fatality Rate and we note that it has been on a steady decline over the last few months.

“We’re however convinced that our sample collection is still low. We therefore encourage states to ramp up their testing and to declare correct results because early detection will ultimately translate to treatment and ultimately leveling of the curve.

“With our statistics standing at cases: 52,227, fatalities: 1,002 and recoveries: 38,945, however, Nigeria maintains the 4th highest cumulative cases in the continent,” Mustapha said.

The SGF said the PTF was committed to reopening the international airspace for flights in a manner that would promote safety, security and economic recovery.

He said prior to the reopening of the airspace, the PTF had put in place point of entry protocols to minimize importation.

He said unfortunately, the validation process for the pre-boarding polymerase chain reaction test had shown that 64 percent of recent spike in number of confirmed cases in Lagos (404) on Saturday were from the evacuees.

“Over the weekend, 252 additional Nigerians were evacuated from the United Arab Emirates which has brought the total number of Nigerians that have returned home to 4,984,” Mustapha said.

He said the government would intensify the validation process for the PCR tests to minimize risks.

He said the “unexpected” news yesterday that the Lagos State Commissioner for Heath, Akin Abayomi, contracted COVID-19 was a grim reminder that the virus is no respecter of persons or their positions. Everyone is at risk and we must take responsibility,” he said.

He wished Abayomi and all other frontline workers that had risked their lives but contracted the virus in the process, safe and speedy recovery.

While urging Nigerians to keep arming the unbreakable Nigerian spirit to win this war and drive the virus out of the land, the SGF urged then to join the hashtag ‘#MaskOnNaija’ national awareness campaign.