Buhari: COVID-19, Not A Joke, A Matter Of Life And Death

By Daniel Dafe

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has said that the war against the Coronavirus pandemic also known as COVID-19 is not a joke but a matter of life and death.

In a national broadcast on Monday evening, Buhari added: Our objective was, and still remains, to contain the spread of the Coronavirus and to provide space, time and resources for an aggressive and collective action.

Continuing, he noted that the level of compliance to the COVID-19 guidelines issued during the 14-day lockdown has been generally good across the country.

The president said the nation was on the right track to win the fight against COVID-19, though said he was concerned about the increase in number of confirmed cases and deaths being reported across the world and in Nigeria specifically.

He continued: “Mosques in Makkah and Madina have been closed. The Pope celebrated Mass on an empty St. Peter’s Square. The famous Notre Dame cathedral in Paris held Easter Mass with less than 10 people. India, Italy and France are in complete lockdown. Other countries are in the process of following suit. We cannot be lax.

“On 30th March 2020, when we started our lockdown in conforming with medical and scientific advice, the total number of confirmed cases across the world was over 780,000. Yesterday, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases globally was over one million, eight hundred and fifty thousand. This figure is more than double in two weeks.

“In the last fourteen days alone, over 70,000 people have died due to this disease.

In the same period, we have seen the health system of even the most developed nations being overwhelmed by this virus.

“Here in Nigeria, we had 131 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in 12 States on 30th March 2020. We had two fatalities then. This morning, Nigeria had 323 confirmed cases in twenty States. Unfortunately we now have ten fatalities. Lagos State remains the center and accounts for 54% of the confirmed cases in Nigeria. When combined with the FCT, the two locations represent over 71% of the confirmed cases in Nigeria. Most of our efforts will continue to focus in these two locations.”

According to him, the increase in the number of States with positive cases is alarming.

He said: “The National Centre for Disease Control has informed me that, a large proportion of new infections are now occurring in our communities, through person-to-person contacts. So we must pay attention to the danger of close contact between person to person.

“At this point, I will remind all Nigerians to continue to take responsibility for the recommended measures to prevent transmission, including maintaining physical distancing, good personal hygiene and staying at home.

“Today, the cessation of movement, physical distancing measures and the prohibition of mass gatherings remain the most efficient and effective way of reducing the transmission of the virus. By sustaining these measures, combined with extensive testing and contact tracing, we can take control and limit the spread of the disease.”

The president who commended traditional rulers, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) and others for the role played, said as a result of the overwhelming support and cooperation received, they were able to achieve a lot during the said 14-day of initial lockdown.

Speaking further, he said: “We implemented comprehensive public health measures that intensified our case identification, testing, isolation and contact tracing capabilities. To date, we have identified 92% of all identified contacts while doubling the number of testing laboratories in the country and raising our testing capacity to 1,500 tests per day.

“We also trained over 7,000 Healthcare workers on infection prevention and control while deploying NCDC teams to 19 states of the federation.”

Buhari who hailed healthcare workers and volunteers across the country, describing them as heroes, disclosed that more measures to motivate them will be announced in the coming weeks.