There are indications that the Federal government will open up the country for more economic activities and. relax restrictions that will allow more workers to resume work.
The Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 response and Secretary to the government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha on Wednesday led members of the Task Force to submit its report to President Muhammadu Buhari, ahead of Thursday’s unveiling of new COVID-19 measures
The report submitted had three thematic areas dealing with protocols on movement, issues affecting labour and industries, and community activities, on which the Task Force is seeking the President’s action.
Mustapha while briefing State House Correspondents after meeting President Buhari, said the PTF made its recommendations around the three thematic areas that would be driven by what the President will approve
READ ALSO: 46% of COVID-19 positive Nigerians are Youths- PTF
“As for the content of the report, it will be premature for me to talk about it because we submitted a report, we have submitted recommendations and so we have to leave for Mr. President to make a decision. By the time I receive his approvals or non-approvals on the recommendations we have made, we will be able to speak to the Nigerian people tomorrow ( Thursday).
“We are conscious of our recommendations as the PTF to have a balance of lives and to see that even where we have allowed for opening, that the protocols we have put in place are properly implanted,” he said
It’s enforcement that has largely been lacking and my appeal is that the subnational should ensure enforcement, as a matter of fact, when we listed some of our challenges, that was top on the list;
Mustapha blamed the level of compliance with its protocols on the lack of enforcement of the regulations that have been put in place.
“As a result of signing the Quarantine Regulation, it’s a regulation, it’s a law, but you see, the issue of enforcement has been lacking and it’s not only in this area and like keep saying most times that COVID-19 has exposed the weaknesses of our systems, all systems, not only the Nigerian system, even the American system, its inadequacies, despite its 300 years of democracy, have been exposed by COVID-19, if not how can a President be arguing with the mayor of a city as to who has authority over what happens? It means there’s a big gap in that system.
“I believe if we can just work on the enforcement aspect of it, which is the responsibility of the subnational, we will go a long way.”
The report is coming against the backdrop of the release of over 10,000 people from the various isolation centers across the country on Tuesday
READ ALSO: COVID-19: FG yet to carry out tests in 85 LGAs in 20 states- Mustapha
Mustapha however cautioned against celebrating the discharges adding that “ as we celebrated those discharges, there’s also been a decrease in the testings. In the last couple of days, we tested just barely 2,000 across the nation, but we have a testing capacity of much more thousands than 2,000.
“Another reason; everybody is still in the Sallah mood, even the essential workers, remember when I talked of fatigue, this is part of it. We’ve been doing this thing for the last three to four months, it gets to a point when you want to lay back and say we are already overcoming this, but I know that in the next couple of days, the testing will be rampant because people would have come out of the Sallah celebrations and come back to work”
“The subnational and local governments will begin to go into the communities to search because this is the point at which you have to go into the local communities and begin to search if you don’t do that, so much is happening as a result of the community transmission that has been cascaded into the local communities that if you wait for it to present itself, it will present itself in a very explosive manner and we can get into a panic mode.
“We don’t want to have that, that is why are encouraging the state governments to go into the local communities to ensure that they search for those infected with this virus, test them if they are positive, isolate them and provide care for them.
Already, the federal government had directed all its worker to proceed for testing, ahead of a possible full-scale resumption of duties
Mustapha said the “president was happy with the content of the report by the PTF and with the work the PTF is doing”.
The report encapsulated how the PTF has managed the global pandemic in the last six months, since the first index case on the 26th of February, 2020
“We have realized that there has been a global increase in terms of infections, we looked at the global statistics. By the 4th of July, the number of infections globally was about 10 million but within a period of one month, from the 4th of July to the 4th of August, there was an increase of almost eight million And the figure went up to 18 plus million.
He noted that the Task Force evaluated the response and “what we want to see in place in the next three months.
“By and large, we are also satisfied with where we have started. We started with two laboratory tests. Today, we have 60 in 31 States plus the Federal Capital Territories (FCT), Abuja.
“Are we returning to two laboratories after this? No. It means that the reconstruction of our health infrastructure has begun. We are working hard to ensure that this month the entire nation is covered with testing facilities.
“We are working with CACOVID and NNPC to ensure that before the end of this pandemic, we have at least a structure that can be defined as a proper molecular laboratory, a testing facility, an isolation facility, and an ICU facility integrated into one.
