The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) has accused some religious organizations of flouting national response guidelines and instructions by holding large crowd events.
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Chairman of the (PTF) and Secretary to the Government of the Federation SGF, Mr Boss Mustapha, made the allegation on Thursday during the week’s media briefing in Abuja.
The SGF also observed that the impact of the virus has caused the economies of families to collapsed resulting in mental health issues, drug use and gender-based violence.
He, however, revealed that the PTF had been working with relevant stakeholders on the issues arising from the impact of Covid-19.
On the allegation against religious organizations, he said “we have observed, rather sadly, that Nigerians, particularly some faith-based organisations have continued to hold events of large gatherings capable of spreading the virus.
“The PTF urges all sub-national entities that signed the protocols with these organisations and have primary responsibility for enforcing the protocols and NPIs to step up their roles of enforcement,” Mustapha said.
“The solution is to exercise enormous self-restraint, vigilance and the PTF urges that citizens should take advantage of the mental health programmes nearest to them. In Abuja, for example, the Federal Medical Centre in Jabi is the facility to visit.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has persisted in the disruption of human activities. We have just received a Report that one of the annual events of a critical security agency has ended abruptly out of abundance of caution, due to detection of an infected personnel.
“The significance of this occurrence is that testing is critical to the success of our National Response. We therefore urge Nigerian and organisers of events to vigorously pursue the path of testing especially for delegates attending events,” Mustapha said.
He said that the PTF recognized that testing level is still very low in the country and that last week, the country’s COVID-19 infections witnessed yet another significant increase after a period of low numbers.
“The analysis show that the total number of 1,607 new confirmed cases are higher than the numbers recorded in the week of Nov. 29 – December 5 when a total of 1,102 cases were recorded.
“For emphasis, the breakdown of testing nationwide in the last one week by state is as follows, four states (Lagos, FCT, Rivers and Ogun) accounted for 64 percent of all tests conducted; seven states conducted more than 1,000 tests in last week; testing increased in 17 states; testing declined in 12 states (Sokoto, Kebbi, Niger, Yobe, Borno, Gombe, Bauchi, Plateau, Taraba, Nasarawa, Benue and Anambra).
“The summary of situation pertaining to cases across states in last one week is cases increased in 23 states; four states increase from zero cases in previous week; 12 states, 100 percent increase, more than double (Sokoto, Osun, Edo, Nasarawa, Kwara, Delta, Jigawa, Taraba, FCT, Rivers, Kano, Katsina)
“By implication, the biggest increases, by both absolute count and percentage increase, are FCT, 689 (129 percent), Kaduna, 365 (86 percent), Lagos, 694 (77 percent). States that have NOT reported a case in at least one week – Abia, Adamawa, Ebonyi, Cross River, Ondo, Niger, and Yobe,” he added.
On works with relevant stakeholders on issues surrounding the impacts of the pandemic, he said “these include the mental health, drug use and gender-based violence. This morning, I joined the Christian Association of Nigeria to launch the campaign against gender-based violence particularly triggered by Covid.
“It is true that family economies have collapsed, jobs lost, mental health issues have arisen, some persons have taken to drugs and rape has escalated.
“The solution is to exercise enormous self-restraint, vigilance and the PTF urges that citizens should take advantage of the mental health programmes nearest to them. In Abuja, for example, the Federal Medical Centre in Jabi is the facility to visit.”
He also said that the PTF in the next two weeks, will be submitting its final Report to President Muhammadu Buhari.
He, however, said that this is not the end of the assignment as the virus has not gone away. “Similarly, there is the significant issue of vaccine to address in the coming months and years. In recognition of this fact, a suitable transition programme that will take into consideration the multi-sectoral approach will be recommended.
“The PTF wishes to appeal to all Nigerians to seriously consider putting on hold all non-essential trips and avoid large social gatherings during the Christmas and New Year festivities,” he said.
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