The national coordinator of the Presidential Task Force on Covid-19 pandemic, Dr Sani Aliyu, says Nigeria can eradicate the virus in four to six weeks.
Dr Aliyu who appeared on Radio Nigeria’s weekly programme, Have Your Say if Nigerians followed the guidelines and regulations of the NCDC to the letter the country would eradicate the pandemic.
He stated that the impact of Covid-19 has not only been felt in the humanitarian side with the loss of lives but also affected the economy and the capacity of the government to carry out it’s duties the most important one being protection of the lives of the citizens.
“Certain recommendations have been made to Mr President based on facts and an announcement would be made this evening based on the current numbers bring witnessed across the country,” he said on Have Your Say.
He added that, “The curve may be flattening out with the reduced number of new infections but we are not out of the woods yet as we can see from other developed countries currently experiencing their second waves; China, US, Europe etc.”
As regards the level of awareness in the grassroots, Dr. Aliyu opined that the awareness of persons at the local government and ward levels have been taken very seriously as pandemic such as this can only be curbed by behavioral change.
“Covid-19 is not behaving like a normal pandemic as such people are not scared as there isn’t anyone bleeding to death like in the case of Ebola. Covid 19 is majorly transmitted by persons who are unaware as they show no symptoms.
“As such, young people need to be very careful so they don’t contact it and then share it with their aged family members who are most at the risk of death from covid-19. The current statistics show that older people have a 1 in 5 chance of passing on the great beyond.”
“We have gotten trustworthy persons in society to talk at markets and public squares to reiterate the fact that washing of hands, maintaining social distancing and wearing off face masks should be the top three commandments.
“At the start there was high compliance but as was to be expected, we have gotten fatigued but we need to remember that the virus does not get tired. Globally there’s been an increase of 1 million infections in just the last 4 days. Our message remains; if you don’t to go out, if you are above 65 or you have a history of diabetes or hypertension, don’t go anywhere.”
The much debated school reopening has people sitting on both sides of the aisle but Dr. Aliyu has come out to say that schools are not yet reopened but allowance was made so that final year students can sit for their exams.
“If the guidelines we have laid down are complied with, then there should be no outbreak. The entire classrooms across the schools should be enough to facilitate social distancing, plus the age of the candidates also makes it easy to impart them with the safety measures.
“Education is on the concurrent list. As such, all tiers of government have a part to play. The private owners also have their work cut out for them to ensure their students are compliant and hopefully the states enforce the rules.”
When asked if Nigeria has low COVID-19 figures because of low testing especially when compared to South Africa, Dr Aliyu said that there’s been much improvements since the outbreak of the pandemic as we now have 60 testing facilities as against the three we had previously. Currently only about five states don’t have molecular labs, he added.
“We currently have a daily capacity of 10 thousand tests and at least 250 thousand test kits nationwide. We are trying to get a simple help line, to enable more people come forward to be tested but there’s been a reluctance except from those already showing symptoms. Most young people do not know they have it but are away transmitting to others.”
“We have been lucky that the death rate from covid-19 has not escalated as we are just revamping our primary health care centers. We also need to factor in those who can’t pay for health care.”
“Our need to reopen the Economy is great and as such the press release later today would contain certain relaxations with respect to current figures from around the country. We have already opened domestic flights and we are looking towards international flights. The previous benchmark of level 14 and above going to work would also be revised.”
