By OLALEKAN ADETAYO, Abuja

The Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, on Wednesday, attributed the low figures recorded in the areas of testing and confirmed cases of COVID-19 over the past few days to the public holiday declared to mark this year’s Eid-el-Kabir.

He also identified fatigue on the part of workers as part of the factors responsible for the low figures.

Mustapha, who is also the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, stated this in an interview with State House correspondents after he led members of the task force to present its interim report to the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Mustapha said the President was happy with the report presented and that he commended members of the task force for their efforts in creating awareness on the virus.

The PTF during a briefing on Monday, July 27, announced the extension of the current phase two of eased lockdown.

With the extension, the phase which was initially scheduled to end on July 29, will now end Thursday, August 6.

Briefing newsmen on Wednesday, the SGF said the PTF would release fresh directives tomorrow once the President endorses its recommendations.

“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 take a decision.

“By the time I receive his approvals, non-approvals on the recommendations we have made, we will be able to speak to the Nigerian people tomorrow (Thursday),” he explained.

The SGF added, “If you noticed, as we celebrated those discharges, there has also been a decrease in the testing.

“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 is that everybody is still in Sallah mood, even the essential workers. Remember when I talked of fatigue, this is part of it.

“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 sub nationals 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.” (The PUNCH)

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