The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19) will continue to monitor developments nationwide in order to take informed decisions by the end of June, on the second phase of  the lockdown.

Mr Boss Mustapha, the chairman of PTF on COVID-19 and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) said this at the daily press briefing on Monday in Abuja.

Earlier in June the PTF announced a one-month period for the implementation of the second phase of the easing of lockdown.

Mustapha said that while pursuing that line of action, the PTF would like to re-echo the World Health Organisation (WHO), advisory to countries and their citizens not to equate any slow-down in numbers accompanied by loosening of restrictive measures to translate to a reduction in the dangers faced by humanity.

“Yesterday, June  21, 2020, Nigeria crossed the threshold of 20, 000, with our total number rising to 20, 244 confirmed cases.

“This signified to the PTF that more testing has been carried out in recent weeks. However, we are not deluded that we are getting enough samples to test. I wish to remind all our citizens that the best strategy remains to test, detect, isolate and treat”.

“That has accounted for the massive expansion in the laboratory network and testing centers,” he stated.

The SGF said that the PTF has also continued to watch developments from other jurisdictions especially those that have similar climatic and demographics with us.

“In Africa, WHO has reported that South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria and Ghana have proportionately been the most affected countries on the continent of Africa. All these combined, represent a serious wake up call for us all to be responsive and to take full responsibility”.

“Our failure to take responsibility threatens the gains we have recorded which is not good for our large population. We really have a choice to make and there is an urgency of yesterday,” he explained.

According to him, as part of the collaboration with the States, the PTF team made up of the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC), and the WHO Representative visited Plateau, Edo, Lagos and Akwa Ibom to assess the state of preparedness and control.

The PTF chairman said that the visit further gives Nigerians confidence that sub-national levels of governments were also taking the necessary actions to ensure that this fight was speedily won.

“Testing positive for COVID-19 is not a death sentence, but failure to test, especially when symptoms are evident could result to death as it may be too late once the symptoms become full blown,” he said.

The SGF said that the death of any Nigerian was not only painful, but most avoidable provided they seek help early.