Members of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 yesterday expressed regret that Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) protocol was breached during the burial of Mr Abba Kyari, late chief of staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, saying lessons had been learnt.

Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Chairman of the agency, Mr Boss Mustapha said: “The PTF recognises, regrettably, the unintentional violation of the principles and protocols that form the core of our messaging to Nigerians, at the funeral of the late Chief of Staff,” he said.

“These principles for emphasis, include the guidance provided on mass gatherings; social distancing; personal hygiene and ​restriction of movements.

“Lessons have been learnt and appropriate measures have been taken to close all gaps. We assure all Nigerians of their safety and the determination of the PTF to combat the pandemic.”

The Coordinator, Mr Sani Aliyu, also apologised for the mistakes.

“The PTF will like to acknowledge and apologise for the mistakes that were made regarding the burial of the late Chief of Staff. We realised that crowd control failed, we have learned from this and we will ensure that future events are adequately regulated and follow the task force’s protocols. The Gudu Cemetery had since been decontaminated, the personal protective equipment discarded according to the NCDC guidelines…

“Therefore, we will like to further assure the public that we will continue to follow the guidelines and protocols we had produced. NCDC guidelines are very much reflecting the WHO guidelines.

“We’ll also like to assure the public that the task force takes its presidential mandate seriously and is committed to executing it to the best of its ability. We ask for the public to continue holding us accountable for our actions. We read your comments on social media, we listen to you and also acknowledge the issues that might arise, please continue to do so, it is the only way we can continue to improve and fight this big challenges we have.”

On if the Taskforce will extend such privileges for the chief of staff burial to other families that might request same, Aliyu said: “Like the Chairman said, the incident over the weekend was not intentional, it was a crowd control issue, no privileges were given. In a pandemic situation, you cannot differentiate between the rich and the poor, you cannot differentiate between nationalities and neither can you differentiate between races because the virus itself does not differentiate.

“The Presidential Task Force is committed to making sure as we move forward, that necessary steps are taken so that this sort of episode does not happen again.”

On why those of them who attended the burial were not on self-isolation as directed by the Presidency, he replied: “In terms of self-isolation, we have clearcut guidelines for isolation: if you have symptoms consistent with COVID-19, we’ll have to isolate you when we test. If you have had contact with a case of COVID-19, we’ll isolate you, if you are coming from an area that is of high prevalence, we will isolate you. So this guidelines in terms of self-isolation and quarantine are very clear.”

Criticisms had trailed the attendance of the burial rites since Saturday even as all those who attended the ceremonies were advised to immediately commence 14 days self-isolation.

Four of the members, who were at the burial attended the yesterday’s daily briefing.

Among those who attended the burial ceremonies, but took part in the daily briefing, yesterday, were the SGF, Messers Hadi Sirika; Geoffrey Onyeama; and Aliyu.

However, Mustapha warned that the COVID-19 outbreak was far from over in Nigeria, adding that the increase in number of COVID-19 patients is worrisome.

According to him, the increase is worrisome.

He appealed to Nigerians to comply with the lockdown directive, saying the Federal Government is determined to “flatten the curve.”

“​Given the increase in the number of confirmed cases in the last week, PTF remains conscious of the fact that we are far from the end of this outbreak in Nigeria. We, therefore, must focus even more vigorously on our strategy of increasing testing, isolating confirmed cases, following up with contacts of cases and managing confirmed cases to recovery,” he said. The significant increase in the number of cases and distribution across states underscore the importance of remaining focused as citizens and as a nation because of the enormity of the challenges ahead.

Sun