By The Nigeria Center for Disease Control, on Saturday called out attendants of Abba Kayari’s private burial ceremony at Gudu Cemetery Abuja, for not adhering to the social distancing measure put in place to curb the pandemic of novel coronavirus.
The NCDC on its Twitter handle, Saturday said:
“Even at this time, as we mourn loved ones lost to COVID-19, including the recently deceased, President’s Chief of Staff, Mallam Abba Kyari, we need to refrain from attending mass gatherings to prevent the further spread of #COVID-19.
“Let us #Stay Safe and protect each other.”
Abba Kyari, the trusted chief of staff to Nigeria’s president Muhammadu Buhari died from complications related to Covid-19 after nearly a month-long battle with the coronavirus.
Kyari, who graduated from Cambridge and Warwick universities in the United Kingdom in the early 1980s, was said to have contracted the coronavirus on an official trip to Germany in March. He was confirmed with the virus on March. 23. At the time, he was said to be in high spirits and widely expected to recover.
Kyari was one of several high-profile political figures in Nigeria to have contracted the virus. The state governors of Bauchi (Bala Mohammed) and Oyo (Seyi Makinde) both contracted the virus in March and have recovered. The Kaduna governor Nasir El-Rufai is still in care.
Nigeria still has a relatively low number of confirmed coronavirus cases with just 493 and 17 deaths, relative to its 200 million population. But there have been significant concerns the country is not giving enough tests to be certain with around just 7,000 tests done.
