… Low Testing Accounted For Number of Covid-19 cases, says Boss Mustapha
By Gbenga Abulude
The Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Mr Boss Mustapha, on Wednesday, attributed the low figures recorded in the areas of testing and confirmed cases of the coronavirus over the past few days to the public holiday observed last week, hence the low number of testing done.
Mustapha also identified fatigue on the part of workers as part of the reasons responsible for the low figures.
The PTF chairman who is also the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, stated this in an interview with State House correspondents after members of the task force presented its interim report to President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa.
Recall that the PTF during the briefing on Monday, announced the extension of the current phase two of eased lockdown to Thursday, August 6 instead of July 29.
He 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.”
