The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 has raised the alarm over the re-emergence of the dreaded Ebola virus in some West African neighbouring countries.
The PTF called on all Nigerians to be more cautious.
Chairman of the PTF and Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr Boss Mustapha, said on Monday during the daily media briefing that more stringent surveillance was being carried out around the nation’s ports of entry in order to prevent the spread of the 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 in which the COVID-19 outbreak had placed the country.
He urged all citizens to be part of the national defence against the disease as the fight is not a responsibility of only government.
He stated that the COVID-19 pandemic had not slowed down its deadly advance in the country.
He disclosed that 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 that 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 had been restricted pending when the protocols were 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 was quoted by The Podium to have said.
He also stated that there has been sustained efforts by sub-national entities and the FCT administration to stem the tide against the second wave of the pandemic.
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