By ABUJAH RACHEAL

Mr Boss Mustapha, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF)/Chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, says Nigeria’s national response on COVID-19 is achieving impressive results.

The PTF chairman, who stated this at the daily briefing of the task force on Monday in Abuja, said “Nigeria continues to progressively witness declining confirmed cases of COVID-19 with a record low number of 79 cases on Sunday, Sept. 13.

“While this suggests that we are winning this war, the reality is that we need to improve on our commitment to eliminate the virus completely by abiding with the protocols so that we can return to a semblance of what was our normal life.

“In a very modest way, therefore, we could say that our National Response, under the guidance of Mr. President, is achieving impressive results and this has been commended by our development partners.

“The PTF wishes to use this opportunity to also thank our development partners as their support has contributed in no small measures to the successes so far recorded and we count on their continued support as we progress in tackling this pandemic,” Mustapha said.

While calling for caution, the PTF chairman said “one critical element we must not lose sight of is the fact that our cautious approach has tremendously helped in our containment efforts.

”Therefore, we should avoid complacency at all cost. Our focus should go beyond flattening the curve and ridding our land of this virus just as we did with the polio virus.”

While decrying the industrial action by the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU), the SGF admitted that the contributions of health workers had no doubt contributed to the nation’s gains.

The PTF chairman appreciated the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) for calling off their strike.

He further noted that the PTF viewed the recent declaration of industrial action by the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) as rather unfortunate and capable of reducing the gains and endangering more lives.

“We, therefore, call on JOHESU to stand up to be counted at this critical moment because a continuation of the strike could jeopardise the small gains made in the fight against the virus and the efforts to transform our health systems.

“The Minister of Labour and Employment has assured that every effort is being made to resolve all issues and have JOHESU call its members back to work.” (NAN)

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