There is an outbreak of COVID-19 at Nigeria’s seat of power, the Presidential Villa, Abuja, with President Muhammadu Buhari’s aides testing positive.
Premium Times had named those affected as the Permanent Secretary in the State House, Tijani Umar; the President’s Aide-de-Camp (ADC), Yusuf Dodo; Chief Security Officer (CSO), Aliyu Musa and the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu.
The online newspaper said their results were confirmed positive during the week.
The report also said the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, is also affected.
But sources confirmed that those affected aren’t seriously affected by the virus because they are fully vaccinated.
The report quoted Shehu as saying: “I have no confirmation of the cases you mentioned, but yes I have been afflicted by the mild variant of the COVID-19. I felt okay from the beginning, maybe because one had received all three jabs, and right now, I feel 100 per cent. I just finished my hour-long running exercise.
“But the strange thing about this ailment is that it is the scientists, not you, that will say you are okay. Right now, I’m taking my prescriptions and isolating, and would go back for a test to ascertain if the virus is still here or it has left me. Thanks for your goodwill.”
The ramp up of testing in the Presidential Villa in the wake of the Omicron variant to ensure the containment of the virus is said to have been necessitated by the development.
President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday received his COVID-19 booster Pfizer Biontech vaccine as Nigeria enters the fourth wave of coronavirus disease following a 500 per cent increase in the number of cases in the past two weeks.
Subsequently, the First Lady, Hajiya Aisha Buhari, also directed all her staff to proceed on leave until further notice.
Last year, she gave similar directive as COVID-19 as the country entered another wave of the virus.
When Shehu was contacted over the report Saturday, he said: “Have you read the Premium Times report? What I said in it is the truth to the best of my knowledge. What is true is that I know about myself that I’m self-isolating and taking my medication, but I know of no other case.”