The Director-General, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Dr Chike
Ihekweazu, has said that the COVID-19 transmission would rise with the
reopening of schools and airports.
He, therefore, warned against complacency and the belief that infection rates were declining.
Speaking
on Monday during a media briefing by the Presidential Task Force on
COVID-19 in Abuja, the DG said only Lagos, Federal Capital Territory,
Ogun and Kano states had been consistently carrying out a high volume of
testing.
Specifically, Ihekweazu said testing rates had declined
drastically in Taraba, Adamawa, Kogi, Nasarawa, Niger, Kebbi, Zamfara,
Jigawa and Yobe states.
The DG observed that Nigerians were
not responding to the plea to come out for testing, adding that the
testing needed to be sustained in order to combat the pandemic.
He
added, “I am very confident about what is going on in Lagos, FCT, Ogun
and probably Kano and a few other states. Having said that, it doesn’t
mean they should let down their guards completely.
“In fact,
with schools and airports opening, we have to increase the level of our
testing because inevitably, there would be more transmission. So, how
are you able to mitigate the impact of that moving forward, given that
we have learnt so much about this virus in the last few months.”
Also
the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Chairman,
Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, called for more
vigilance to forestall possible resurgence of the COVID-19 as schools
resumed in some states across the country.
He warned that the
appreciable progress recorded might be eroded, especially due to the
opening of the airspaces to international travels, relaxation of a
number of restrictions and opening up of more sectors of the economy.
The
National Coordinator of the PTF, Dr Sani Aliyu, said Nigeria was
performing below target in terms of tests for COVID-19, warning
Nigerians against making the country to record a second wave of the
pandemic.
According to him, people are avoiding the tests for various reasons, including payment, fear and stigma.
He, however, stated that the government had established and accreditedlaboratories where tests are done for free.
Aliyu
said, “The PTF remains seriously concerned about the current low
testing rate we have in the country. Nigerians are not getting tested
for COVID-19 but we must test to track, in order to slow the spread of
the virus even further and to stop any more preventable COVID-related
death.”
Aliyu urged Nigerians to go for COVID-19 tests, which
he said are free at 69 laboratories and centres across the country.
According to him, a weekly assessment by the PTF had shown that more
Nigerians have shown lack of interest in testing for the virus.