By Oyinlola Awonuga (The New Diplomat’s Entertainment, Fashion and Sports Desk)
The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, has said it has not been proven scientifically that the dreaded coronavirus can be transmitted through sex.
Dr Sani Aliyu who spoke on behalf of the PTF said it has not been proven scientifically that the Coronavirus infection is sexually transmissible.
Aliyu stated this during a press briefing while reacting to a question bordering on alleged prove that the virus still remains in male testis after treatment.
He noted that although the virus was still in its early stages, no research have proven that it could be transmitted through sex, citing a test carried out on some women who had tested positive for COVID-19, but whose genital secretions tested negative for COVID-19.
He said: “At the moment, there’s no evidence of sexual transmission when it comes to COVID-19, but of course, we are still in the early days of the disease. The same thing happened in the case of Ebola, when subsequently it was proved that it was sexually transmissible.
“There was a small test case series of ten women who had severe COVID-19 and genital secretions were negative of COVID-19 virus. I think it’s still in the early days; I’ll just say, watch this space”.
On the issue of increasing testing rates for the virus across the country, Aliyu explained that though the PTF was experiencing some difficulties in the area of operational efficiency and testing sites, he said the task force was already working on solving that through more collaboration with appropriate partners.
“Yes, we are looking at every possibility of expanding testing, but there are a lot of bottlenecks. Some of the bottlenecks have less to do with the laboratories, but more to do with the operations efficiency and also the availability of easy sampling sites. For example, in Lagos they have a lot of places where people can go to get tested and we are looking at that model.
“We already have the Chief Executive Officer of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Faisal Shuaib, as part of the task force now. We are working with him closely to see how we can expand testing. All options are on the table,” he said.
It would be recalled that sex scandals recently hit COVID-19 Isolation Centres in Uganda, where patient on quarantine engaged in sexual acts with one another.
