The National Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Sani Aliyu while briefing on coronavirus update during its daily briefing in Abuja yesterday disclosed the civil Aviation regulators would determine the resumption based on their preparedness but not as an earlier statement.
The Federal government had in March shut the nations both international and domestic airspace to flights to arrest the spread of the coronavirus in the country.
However, yesterday against the earlier claim of resumption on June 21st, Aliyu said the PTF was yet to receive any update from the aviation sector on its preparedness to restart flight operations.
In his statement, “What we said to the aviation authorities is you need to let us know from the 21st of June onwards if you’re ready to start opening the skies.
“We didn’t say 21st of June skies open. “We gave them a window of three weeks to prepare and I believe they’re still preparing.
“We did not ask them for updates on how things are going but we expect them to get back to us.
“We don’t have an update on that yet, but we expect them to come to us by the 21st of June.
“If they come back to us by the 21st of June and they say we’re ready onwards, we’ll open the sky for domestic travelers and that is when we’ll address the issue of interstate restrictions and curfew but at the moment, there’s no plan right now to say, 21st of June, here we go.
“It’s inspirational if anything,” Aliyu said.
However, the Chairman of the PTF, who is also the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha raised alarm over the observed increase in the cases of the coronavirus on daily bases.
He enjoined Nigerians to celebrate Democracy Day in a solemn and reflective manner, warning that “We must ensure that our goal is to stay alive and remain COVID-19 free”
Shortly before the PTF meeting yesterday, at a public hearing of the house of Reps Adhoc committee on COVID-19, Aliyu said the PTF was working with the Ministry of Education to work out a school resumption plan to protect students.
Meanwhile, President Buhari has warned ECOWAS Head of states and government against relaxing their guard against the fight of coronavirus pandemic.
Buhari gave the warning during a meeting with the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Jean Kassi-Brou, in his capacity as ECOWAS COVID-19 champion.
According to Buhari, the deadly virus is yet to reach its peak in Africa.
He also called on member states to continually sensitize their citizens on the preventive measures.
