By Segun James
The Chairman of the Presidential Taskforce on Coronavirus (Covid-19) and Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha, has said that the nation is on course to halt the ravaging pandemic, even as he commended the efforts of the Lagos State Government towards curtailing the disease.
Mustapha said this in Lagos Tuesday during a working visit by his team to the state to see how far the government has gone in its effort to stop the pandemic.
A very impressed SGF told Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu: “Lagos is doing a great job on the containment of the pandemic.”
The task force team inspected the isolation facilities at Mobolaji Johnson Arena, Onikan, Lagos Island; the Infectious Disease Hospital, IDH, Yaba; Lagos University Teaching Hospital, (LUTH), Idi-Araba; and Gbagada General Hospital Isolation Centre, Gbagada.
Speaking with first responders, Mustapha said: “Thank you for the great job that you’re doing in supporting the work that is being undertaken by His Excellency, the Governor of Lagos State and his team.
“We’ve just taken a tour of the facilities that is very important place in anticipation that we’ll have to receive patients here.
“So far, I think Lagos State is doing a great job. From what I’ve seen here, they’re putting up a first class and a world class facility that will help us in the management of those that are affected with COVID-19.
“I think we are on course and the basic strategy of the national response is containment. Try as much as possible to reduce the spread to tracking of those that have already been infected so that we can minimize the case of community transmission.
“We are doing very well. So far, processes that have been put in place, the plans, the objectives are being achieved.
“I listened to the briefing of the commissioner for Lagos State yesterday, where there was quite a clear indication that the reason for the lockdown and the processes that have been put in place is achieving its desired objective.”
He, however, urged residents of the state to continue to give the government necessary support in the fight against COVID-19 to kick it out of the country.
The SGF charged the media to continue to broadcast to the people on the need to “maintain social distances. We need to maintain personal hygiene and we need to report anybody within the community who has shown symptoms of the infection, so that as quickly as possible, the help that is desired can be extended to those persons.”
In the entourage was the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Muhammed, among other personalities.
