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By Johnbosco Agbakwuru

ABUJA—AS a proactive measure to contain unlikely outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the country, President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday set up a task force for the Control of the disease.

The task force which has a representative of the World Health Organization, WHO, is headed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Boss Mustapha.

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This was contained in a statement issued by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu.

The statement read:  “Given the current global outbreak of the novel Coronavirus and its potential of causing significant disruption to health services in the country as well as impacting negatively on the economy, President Muhammadu Buhari has established a Presidential Task Force for the Control of the Coronavirus-19 Disease (COVID-19).

“This action is in preparation for the unlikely but probable major outbreak of the disease in the country which will require a multi-sectoral inter-governmental approach as advised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) similar to that adopted for the HIV epidemic in the last two decades.”

It said that the start and finish task group would be expected to deliver within a maximum period of six months.

Members of the task force are, Boss Mustapha (SGF), Chairman,  Dr. Sani Aliyu, national coordinator, Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, the Minister of Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika and the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Services, Sadia Umar Faruk

Others are the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed Minister of Environment, Mohammed Mahmoud, Director-General, State Services, Yusuf Bichi, the Director-General, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Dr. Chikwe Ihekwazu and the WHO Country Representative

Vanguard