President Muhammadu Buhari is neither coughing severely nor on ventilator, says Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.
At a press briefing in Abuja today, the Minister debunked such reports as fake, recalling that the President had tested negative to the COVID-19 disease.
He also described as fake news the reports that there were only two ventilators in Abuja, out of which one has been commandeered for a top government official and that a British Airways flight landed in Nigeria on Wednesday despite the closure of all international airports.
“Fake. Fake. Fake. It’s all fake news” disclosed that there are 4,370 people of interest whom are currently being traced.
“We urge those who have had contact with suspected cases to
immediately report to the authorities. We urge Nigerians to support the authorities in this regard.
“We are on the verge of reaching the level of community spread. We must stop this immediately or we will record exponential cases in the days ahead. There is no better way to say this”, he warned
He also called out a section of the traditional media which he says has “been engaging in scaremongering and irresponsible reporting on the disease.
According to him, “it is wrong
to speculate on those who are positive or negative for coronavirus
without any empirical information. In any case, being positive to
coronavirus is not a death sentence, as we can see around the world.
“There is no need for the kind of scaremongering we are seeing in a
section of the media. The danger is that this scaremongering can even discourage some who may want to come forward for testing. We therefore wish to appeal to the media to be more circumspect in their reporting.”
The Minister commended some domestic airlines that suspended flight operations, saying that it “as a boost to the efforts of the government to check the spread of the pandemic.
“Some of the airlines have also
announced one form of support or another for the government’s efforts to tackle the pandemic. This is very commendable.
“We are aware of more private sector support to the FG and will be announcing this after full compilation. We seek
the support and cooperation of more capable individuals and organizations in order to defeat this pandemic”.
Giving a breakdown of the safety and test kits donated by the Jack Ma Foundation in China which includes 100,000 face masks, 1,000 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and 20,000 test kits, the Minister revealed that the face masks and the PPE will be distributed to the front-line
health workers while the test kits will be shared among the five test
laboratories.
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