Borno State, Deputy Governor, Alhaji Usman Kadafur, has observed that people are still taking the issues of COVID-19 lightly like they did with Boko Haram until the situation ran out of hand and managing it became a problem until now.
Kadafur said when Boko Haram began initially, residents of Maiduguri undermined the fact that the hardliners could turn out to be monsters just like the way they are treating the COVID-19 pandemic.
He lamented the non-compliance of residents on social distancing, hand-washing, use of sanitizers, face masks and personal hygiene to prevent the spread.
Kadafur, who doubles as Chairman of COVID-19 response team said: “It’s highly sad that despite the increasing rate of the spread of the pandemic, a lot of residents do not believe the existence of the virus.”
He noted that it is rather unfortunate that many people participated in burial ceremonies and still observe congregational prayers against the rules of social distancing.
“COVID-19 is another Boko Haram coming, and yet people don’t believe it’s real. I keep saying it’s real,” he said.
“The response team; is working round the clock to establish a new isolation centre, as two existing ones at Ngaranam and that of the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) are overstretched by over 50 per cent capacity.
“Our COVID-19 response team and other partners; have engaged in serious meetings on the establishment of the new isolation center in the past two days.
“This makes it very difficult for me to personally attend the daily media briefings for the last few days. Despite the best responses of the team; there are some people out there who want to discredit not only the state response team but the whole nation.
“Even if I’m to be infected, I have to be taken there, so we’ll have to put in our best. And as far as I’m concerned, the response team is doing its best and we’ll do our best towards that.”
He, therefore, urged the people to believe that the virus is real and have no cure yet.