The COVID-19 Presidential Task Force has said the coronavirus pandemic may just begin in Nigeria, which now has 12,000 cases of COVID-19 and 342 deaths.

The PTF blamed the country's low testing ratio on the Nigerians' reluctance to come forward for testing.

The PTF disclosed this before the House of Representatives while explaining how it managed the funds allocated for the fight against COVID-19.

The PTF chairman and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF Boss Mustapha said, “I must say that the virus is still very dangerous. We have not peaked; we have to meticulously plan. There is no timeline; that is why money is not being thrown at it just because it has been released.

“We don’t know how long this will take us. Even the budget that the National Coordinator mentioned is for a period of six months. We do not know how long it will take us. But by the grace of God, we shall overcome.

“There is no medicine or vaccine for this. The humanity is simply overwhelmed by it. Everything has been turned upside down. Today, we are all masked up. We never used to know it like this. Please, honourable members, there is a lot you can do for us; a lot of legislative actions that can be taken, looking into the future. We are dealing with it today; the next pandemic must not catch us unawares. We must prepare for it.”

Chikwe Ihekweazu, the Director-General of the Nigerian Center for Disease Control, NCDC, also poke at the presentation before the House of Representatives.

“We are still in the middle of a very, very bad outbreak. In fact, it is most likely that we are at the beginning of a very bad outbreak. This is the honest truth. “And as we dig into the details of what we have done, I really crave your indulgence to please, bear in mind that we do this work together, because we really have a collective responsibility to our people,” the NCDC boss said.