PTF wants Buhari to push Covid-19 battle to states, communities

The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on Covid-19 has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to push the battle to curtail Covid-19 in Nigeria to states and communities.

The chairman of the PTF, Boss Mustapha on Sunday said that was part of the recommendations they made to Buhari when they briefed him concerning the current situation of the pandemic in the country.

Mustapha alongside other members of the PTF had met Buhari on Sunday.

Among the members of the group who met with Buhari included the Minister of Health Dr Osagie Ehanire; National Coordinator of the PTF Dr Sani Aliyu; Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Dr Chikwe Ihekwaezu, and Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola.

Addressing newsmen at the State House after the meeting with Buhari, Mustapha said:

“The ownership of the next stage will be the responsibility of the states because we have gone into community transmission.

”Where are the communities? The communities are in the states. So, the ownership of the next stage will be the responsibility of the states, the local government, the traditional institutions, the religious leaders at the different levels of our communities, because that is where the problem is.

”Like we’ve kept saying, 20 local governments out of 774, account for 60 per cent of confirmed cases in Nigeria today. So where are these 20 local governments? They are in communities. It means we have reached the apex of community transmission and we must get the communities involved.

”So, the issues of places of worship, the issues of schools, the issues of some certain businesses that were not opened hitherto are part of the packages that we have looked at and we have made the appropriate recommendations, but you know that Mr President is the only one that can take decisions in respect of these.

”In the framework, the states are subnationals, they have their own responsibilities too, so it is in the exercise of those responsibilities that they had meetings with those religious bodies and agreed on the guidelines and protocols on how they can open up, but in the framework of the national response, we are taking that into consideration.”

On the reopening of the economy and worship centres, the PTF boss said, ”That’s part of what we have considered in its totality. We would await Mr President’s decision on that, once I receive his approval, going forward, as to certain recommendations we have put in place, we will see how that happens.

”The issue of easing up, you know we are in the first phase, we had an extension of two weeks for the first phase, the next phase should be the second phase and along with that will come in with a lot of recommendations, which we expect Mr President to consider.”

Read also: COVID-19: Buhari receives briefing from PTF

He said a total reopening of the economy was a process that had since been ongoing.

”We have started, even in the first phase and the extension that came with it. Essential parts of the economy was opening up by way of allowing agricultural production, people that produce fertilizers.

”The oil and gas industry was never closed for one day and some aspects of the financial sector were opened. After we receive Mr President’s approval tonight (yesterday) or tomorrow (today) morning, we will now know which segment of the economy he has allowed to open”, Mustapha said.

On the current situation of things he said, “We are winning. As a matter of fact, you juxtapose the rate of cases with our fatality rate, which is basically about three per cent, in other countries and other climes, it’s over 10 per cent, but the most important thing that you will realise, when we started this exercise, we had only five testing stations, now we’ve ramped it up to 28, without correspondent increase in the number of deaths. We’ve gone beyond 60,000 tests now, that reflects in the number of confirmed cases

”We’ve not reached the peak yet and I won’t want to fool Nigerians by telling them that we are out of the woods. No, we are not out of the woods.

“As we even open up and accommodate more enterprises, because we are trying to have a balance between livelihoods and life, there’s a likelihood of increase in transmission in cases.

”But that should not be a source of despair. Like we’ve always said, the experts will tell you over 80 per cent will contact Coronavirus and will not even notice that they have and that accounts for what is happening at the isolation centres when you see young men saying they are not sick and asking why they are being kept there. They are asymptomatic, they don’t show symptoms and they will wear it out.

”There’s a 20 per cent that is critical by virtue of certain factors, indices: age, underlying health conditions and vulnerability. That’s the percentage we are trying to protect and if we don’t do something in terms of management, in terms of putting in non-pharmaceutical intervention and guidelines to protect that 20%, about five per cent of them can fall critically ill and eventually become fatalities in the numbers and that’s what we are trying to avoid.”

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