The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr Boss Mustapha, who is also the Chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, disclosed that the spread of the pandemic in the country has reduced during the media briefing by the task force in Abuja.
He stated that based on the evaluation of experts, assessment of available data and experiences of other nations currently in the same situation, the PTF has submitted its recommendations to President Muhammadu Buhari and urged Nigerians to await further pronouncements in this regard.
Mustapha said: “92 percent of contacts tracing has been achieved. He assured Nigerians that the task force is working hard to fight the pandemic. The PTF continues to appeal to all Nigerians to remain calm, maintain personal hygiene, observe physical distancing and stay at home.”
Mustapha listed the accomplished objectives of the task force with the support of the citizens since the President’s broadcast on 29th March 2020.
• Reduced spread in the pandemic so as not to overwhelm our fragile health system, Intensified case identification, testing and isolation. Intensified contact listing and isolation (92% of all contacts have been identified).
• Increased laboratories by 100% (Lagos -3; Abuja-2; Irua-1; Ibadan UCH-1; Iree-1; Jos-1; Kano-1; Abakaliki-1) there are now 11 laboratories in the network. Increased testing by 50% to the current capacity of 1,500 tests per day, with over 6,000 tests done. Procurement concluded for new throughput testing by end of the month.
• Distributed Personal Protective Equipment to over 40,000 healthcare workers.
• Trained over 7,000 Healthcare workers on infection prevention and control. Deployed NCDC teams to 19 states.
Mustapha said: Despite all of these, the PTF is convinced that we must deliver more. We have also been assessing the impact of the lockdown and the level of compliance by Nigerians.
While we recognize the difficulties associated with such unprecedented action, we remain certain.However,it is a step in the right direction for us to secure a better healthy system.

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