The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 has alerted Nigerians over re-emergence of the dreaded Ebola virus in some West African neighbouring countries, calling on all Nigerians to be more cautious.
Chairman of the PTF and Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr Boss Mustapha, who raised the alarm on Monday during the task force’s media briefing in Abuja, however noted that more stringent surveillance is being carried out around the nation’s ports of entry in order to prevent the spread of disease in Nigeria.
According to him, the PTF had decided to make the surveillance against Ebola a priority in order not to compound the current dangerous position the COVID-19 outbreak had placed the country, urging all citizens to be part of the national defence against the disease as the fight is not a responsibility of only government.
According to him, COVID-19 pandemic had not slowed its deadly advance in the country down, disclosing the just last Saturday, the country recorded the second highest single-day death counts as 24 victims were lost to coronavirus.
While noting that the sad development of February 13 was a wake-up call to Nigerians to take responsibility and comply with protocols and regulations, Mustapha said the task force would intensify monitoring of developments for the next two weeks to ascertain the level of the impact of last weekend’s Valentine’s Day celebration on citizens.
Mustapha also recalled at the last briefing, the PTF mentioned the dialogue between Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and KLM (Netherland) over the testing requirements prescribed by some airlines.
He said that government also informed outbound airlift of passengers by these airlines have been restricted pending when the protocols are ironed out.
“The PTF wishes to underscore the fact that respect for national protocols, setting up of appropriate infrastructure and the all-round protection of our travelling nationals shall remain paramount in our consideration and the eventual outcome,” he said.
He also said that there have been sustained efforts by sub-national entities and the FCT administration to stem the tide against the second wave of the pandemic.
