The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 on Monday warned that allowing a second wave of the pandemic in the country could destroy the economy and lead to too many deaths.
The National Coordinator of the task force, Dr. Sani Aliyu, gave the warning at the daily media briefing in Abuja.
The warning is coming as schools across the country begin to open their doors to students in exit classes, even as more businesses also reopen after months of lockdown.
Speaking on Monday, Aliyu said: “Specifically, we urge businesses that are reopening to align themselves to our efforts by establishing and practising COVID-19-sensitive business precautionary measures.
“We eventually have to reopen, but we can only do so if we reopen safely. It is quite clear, as we can see from the other parts of the world, that certain countries are now going back into lockdown because of the pandemic coming back, otherwise called recrudescence or what we call a second wave.
“We really cannot afford to have this happening in this country. It will destroy our economy and it will lead to a lot of deaths. Therefore, we have to reopen safely. We cannot risk another shutdown nor can we risk more lives being lost.”
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He assured that the PTF would continue to provide data-driven and scientific advisories to help the country, adding that data analysis had shown that a large population of Nigerians were living in denial of the virulent nature of COVID-19.
The Coordinator warned that it would be dangerous to be fooled into complacency and urged Nigerians to desist from drawing conclusions that the COVID-19 curve of the country had started to gradually flatten, based on the decline in cases in the last few days.
Aliyu stressed that the decrease in the number of cases recorded was as a result of the of reduction in the numbers of COVID-19 samples collected across the country, especially during the Eid-el-Kabir celebration.
Also commenting on the decreased number of COVID-19 positive cases in the country in the last few days, the Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu said: “Concerning the decline in the cases in the last few days, we all know we have had a long weekend and have had an excellent Sallah break.
“Many of us have had to slow down a little bit and that slowdown has also happened such that many of those collecting samples across many states in Nigeria have also slowed down.”