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Why There Has Been Low COVID-19 Cases And What Nigerians Should Expect – Presidency

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The federal government has explained why Nigeria has been having low figures reported in the daily coronavirus infection update in recent times.

The Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 and Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha, who addressed the issue on Wednesday, noted that the low cases are because testing has dropped.

He added that most workers didn’t go to work as a result of the Sallah holiday declared by the federal government and testing reduced.

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Speaking further, the SGF noted that the trend is expected to change as people return to work and testing resumes.

He stated this while addressing state house correspondents after the presidential task force on COVID-19 presented its report to President Muhammadu Buhari at the Aso Rock Villa in Abuja.

The current phase of the eased lockdown was announced on Monday, July 27 and after the committee submitted its report to the president on Wednesday, Mr. Mustapha disclosed that he will be able to speak on the next line of action on Thursday after receiving directives from President Buhari.

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“As for the content of the report, it will be premature for me to talk about it because we submitted a report, we have submitted recommendations and so we have to leave for Mr President to take a decision.

“By the time I receive his approvals, non-approvals on the recommendations we have made, we will be able to speak to the Nigerian people tomorrow (Thursday),” he explained.

The SGF added, “If you noticed, as we celebrated those discharges, there has also been a decrease in the testing.

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“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.”