No Nigerian State Is Free Yet – FG Declares
No Nigerian State Is Free Yet – FG Declares
The Federal Government has dismissed reports that some states in Nigeria are now free of COVID-19 having discharged all patients in their isolation and treatment centers.
Some states had recently discharged all their COVID-19 patients, giving the impression that they are now free of the disease.
The government also frowned at the general lack of compliance with COVID-19 safety protocols, lamenting how Nigerians now wear facemasks only to evade arrest rather than as a safety measure to halt the spread of the virus.
These were disclosed on Monday in Abuja during the daily briefing of the Presidential Taskforce PTF on Covid-19.
Director-General, Nigerian Centre for Disease Control NCDC, Dr. Chikwe Iheakwazu said no state in the country can yet be declared Covid-19 free even if they have discharged all their Covid-19 patients.
“Some states were discharging patients and declaring themselves COVID-19 free. No state in Nigeria is COVID-19 free. Not one. No country in the world is COVID-19 free.
Even New Zealand that is an Island state is still having new cases after a period of not having any. We cannot separate ourselves from the rest of the country. We live in a context.
“Viruses spread. It is the nature of them. So, right now, no state is COVID-19 free. That is why we have to keep doing this work that we are doing, testing people, finding out if they have it.
Even if you are asymptomatic, you can spread it. That is why prevention is very important. If you cannot prevent, you detect and it is that detection we call laboratory testing which we have to scale up”, he stated.
