With just 79 cases of coronavirus recorded on Sunday, Nigeria may be on the way to winning the war against the pandemic.

The Presidential Task Force on Covid-19 has however warned against complacency to avoid a resurgence in infections  and the possibility of returning to lockdown.

Chairman of the task force, Boss Mustapha said while Nigeria’s development partner are commending its national response strategy and results, it is unwise to declare a declining trend because many states are not testing enough.
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“A careful study of the numbers coming out of Africa will reveal that there is a flattening of the curve in the African region. There has been a weekly decline in the number of new COVID-19 cases reported since the 20th July.

“Fatalities are also on a downward trend. More than one million people have recovered. While this is a welcome development, as we’ve seen from other regions of the world that cases can decline only to start rising again.

“The WHO has informed that it is working in collaboration with the Africa CDC to launch a network of laboratories dedicated to genetic sequencing so as to better understand the evolution of the pandemic and how SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes COVID-19, is spreading.

“Nigeria continues to progressively witness declining confirmed cases of COVID-19 with a record low number of 79 cases on Sunday, September 13, 2020. While this suggests that we are winning this war, the reality is that we need to improve on our commitment to eliminate the virus completely by abiding with the protocols so that we can return to a semblance of what was our normal life.

“In a very modest way, therefore, we could say that our National Response, under the guidance of Mr. President, is achieving impressive results and this has been commended by our development partners. The PTF wishes to use this opportunity to also thank our development partners as their support has contributed in no small measures to the successes so far recorded and we count on their continued support as we progress in tackling this pandemic.

“​One critical element we must not loose sight of is the fact that our cautious approach has tremendously helped in our containment efforts. Therefore, we should avoid complacency at all cost. Our focus should go beyond flattening the curve and ridding our land of this virus just as we did with the polio virus”, said Mustapha.

He also urged school administrators  to observe more vigilance in adhering to protocols appropriately developed with the guidance of experts even as he warned against a likely spike and/or resurgence of coronavirus.