PTF says no proof yet that COVID-19 is sexually transmissible

The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on the coronavirus pandemic has said that there were yet to be any scientific proof that the Coronavirus infection is sexually transmissible.

National Coordinator of the PTF, Dr Sani Aliyu, who stated this on Wednesday during the daily press briefing by the task force, also denied authoring any statement that suggested that the federal government was planning a complete national lockdown.

Aliyu spoke about sexual transmissibility of COVID-19 while reacting to a question bordering on alleged proof that the virus, after treatment for the disease, still remains in male testis.

The National Coordinator said although the world was still in the early days of the disease, no research had proven that it could be transmitted true sex, citing a test carried out on some women who had tested positive to COVID-19, but whose genital secretions tested negative for COVID-19.

“At the moment, there’s no evidence of sexual transmission when it comes to COVID-19, but of course, we are still in the early days of the disease. The same thing happened in the case of Ebola, when subsequently it was proven that it was sexually transmissible.

“There was a small test case series of ten women who had severe COVID-19 and genital secretions were negative of COVID-19 virus. I think it’s still in the early days, I’ll just say, watch this space”, he said.

On the issue of increasing testing rates for the virus across the country, Aliyu explained that though the PTF was experiencing some difficulties in the area of operational efficiency and testing sites, he said the task force was already working on solving that through more collaboration with appropriate partners.

“Yes, we are looking at every possibility of expanding testing, but there are a lot of bottlenecks. Some of the bottlenecks are less to do with the laboratories, but more to do with the operations efficiency and also the availability of easy sampling sites. For example, in Lagos they have a lot of places where people can go to get tested and we are looking at that model.

“We already have the Chief Executive Officer of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Faisal Shuaib, is part of the task force now, we are working with him closely to see how we can expand testing. All options are on the table”, he said.

Aliyu also dissociated himself, as well as the PTF from a statement that went round from Tuesday evening, attributing an alleged plan by federal government to impose a national lockdown soon, allegedly owing to the increasing spread of the disease.

He, however, warned the media and the general public to be watchful, saying “my attention has been drawn to a fake task force media statement, which was said to be signed by me, talking about a proposed complete lockdown of the country.

“Not only did the statement patently fail, it was badly written. It is unfortunate that a small number of persons continued to engage in mischief making at such a serious time when we are talking about Coronavirus infection.

“I must reiterate that the task force has not released any official statement on a complete lockdown, I refer to the SGF’s speech yesterday, on submitting formal findings to Mr President, this is yet to happen.

“I request that the public and the media take caution in circulating or publishing unverified news. To be very clear, all formal statements on th emergency response are made through this daily press briefing or through official press statements”, he concluded.