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Former vice president, Atiku Abubakar has expressed deep worry over the increasing number of coronavirus cases in the country.
This followed the released data by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Thursday night which showed that a total of 687 new cases were confirmed, the highest daily record in the country.
In a series of tweet on Friday, Atiku said Nigerians cannot afford to be complacent about COVID-19, noting that the “alarming increase shows we are not out of the woods yet”.
“Even as restrictions are being lifted, Nigerians cannot afford to be complacent about #COVID19. Despite our best efforts, we continue to register an increased daily tally of new infections of the coronavirus,” said the former vice president.
“Yesterday (June 11, 2020), we hit a new all-time high of 681 cases, up from the previous all-time high of 663 cases just three days ago (June 9, 2020). On this issue, we must be led by scientific data, rather than political propaganda. We must focus on what cannot lie: The facts.
“This alarming increase shows we are not out of the woods yet. We need to ramp up testing, discourage non-essential gathering in crowded places, encourage the use of face masks and continue to promote social distancing and washing of hands as a way of life.
“However, even more important, is the need to build up treatment capacity. The minister of health already forewarned us that Nigeria’s hospital beds and isolation centre capacities will be overwhelmed by the end of June 2020, if the rate of new infections continues unabated.
“This means that we might run out of places to isolate the infected, with the resultant effect that they will infect more people. The only solution I can see is that we must increase our hospital bed capacity and isolation centres as soon as possible.
“I, therefore, urge the Federal Government and the states to collaborate by employing the services of the Nigerian Army Corps of Engineers to build, as a matter of emergency, field hospitals in each of the six geopolitical zones of the nation.
“We must act now, rather than react later when the death toll may begin to mount. We must exhaust every resource at Nigeria’s disposal to prevent any avoidable loss of lives among the citizenry. -AA.”
MERIDIAN SPY reported Friday night, NCDC confirmed 627 new COVID-19 cases. Nigeria now has a total of 15, 181, 4,891 recoveries and 399 deaths.
