The Federal Government says it has suspended indefinitely all unnecessary travels for meetings by government officials.
Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Chairman, Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, announced this in Abuja at the 50th joint national briefing of the taskforce.
He also said that government or board meetings should be conducted virtually until further notice, adding that Nigerians must remain vigilant as the pandemic would not go away by a wish, neither would it go away if people refuse to keep safe.
The SGF said, “Please, let us all resolve to play our part, while the government does its best to save lives and livelihood. To this end, all government offices shall continue to hold virtual meetings in their offices, especially where participants exceed four persons and suspend all unnecessary travels for meetings.
“For corporate organisations, board members, among others, the reopening of the domestic flights should not be misconstrued.
“The PTF strongly encourages virtual meetings as well; we still urge places of worship to cautiously follow the guidelines on public gatherings, and we urge members of the political class to exercise utmost circumspection in their gathering for whatever reasons.”
Mustapha said the decision was part of the outcome of the PTF mid-term Review of the National Response Strategy.
He said that the Mid-term review had in attendance legislators, including the Chairmen of the relevant Committees on Health in the Senate and House of Representatives, the Office of the Vice President, Ministers, Diplomatic Community as well as development partners.
On the case management deficit, Mustapha said that the focus was on having enough oxygen nationwide as the number of hospitalised persons increases.
On the testing deficit, he said that the plan was to establish one sample collection centre per local government areas.
Mustapha said, “Underlying the above, as a cross-cutting initiative is an enhanced Risk Communication Strategy designed not only to educate the citizenry on the virulence of the virus and individual and collective roles, but more importantly to tackle the deliberate misinformation being bandied around, especially in the social media.
“An enhanced Risk Communication strategy becomes inevitable when we realise that within the last 24 hours, the world witnessed the largest single-day cases of 230,370 while in Nigeria the last week recorded the highest weekly fatality of 70 deaths.”
On the controversy surrounding schools resumption, the SGF said, “The PTF has followed with keen interest the conversation around the resumption of schools. We recognise that our children are precious and we would not do anything to compromise their safety.
“The PTF has assessed the circumstances and has put in place necessary guidelines to be followed while the managers of the sector have the responsibility for drawing up the protocols and determining the dates.
“We urge Nigerians to follow closely the critical steps being taken by the Federal Ministry of Education in conjunction with other stakeholders.”
The SGF added that the Federal Ministry of Education had released guidelines for schools and learning facilities reopening after COVID-19 pandemic closure.
He said that the guidelines clearly spell out major things to consider before schools and learning facilities shall reopen, the reopening process, sequencing and scheduling of safe reopening and decisions about schools reopening.