Coronavirus: What FG Said About Sexual Transmission Of COVID-19

The federal government of Nigeria has disclosed that there is no proof yet that COVID-19 can be sexually transmitted.

This was disclosed by the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic who noted that no scientific proof exists that the Coronavirus infection is sexually transmissible.

The National Coordinator of the PTF, Dr. Sani Aliyu, confirmed this on Wednesday during the daily press briefing by the task force.

He made the submission while reacting to a question bordering on alleged proof that the virus, after treatment for the disease, still remains in the male testis.

“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 proven 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”, he said.

Speaking further during the briefing on the issue of increasing testing for the virus across the country, Aliyu explained that despite the difficulties been experienced in the area of operational efficiency and testing sites, 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 are 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, is 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.

Aliyu also used the opportunity to denounce an allegation that the federal government plans to impose a national lockdown soon due to the increasing spread of the disease.

He said: “My attention has been drawn to a fake task force media statement, which was said to be signed by me, talking about a proposed complete lockdown of the country.

“Not only did the statement patently fail, it was badly written. It is unfortunate that a small number of persons continued to engage in mischief making at such a serious time when we are talking about Coronavirus infection.

“I must reiterate that the task force has not released any official statement on a complete lockdown, I refer to the SGF’s speech yesterday, on submitting formal findings to Mr President, this is yet to happen.

“I request that the public and the media take caution in circulating or publishing unverified news. To be very clear, all formal statements on the emergency response are made through this daily press briefing or through official press statements.”