Buhari’s aides, minister tests positive for COVID-19

<p><strong>A number of presidential aides have reportedly tested positive to Covid-19 and are now on self-isolation&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Premium Times Saturday<&sol;em> named those affected as the permanent secretary in the State House&comma; Tijani Umar&semi; the President’s Aide-de-camp &lpar;ADC&rpar;&comma; Yusuf Dodo&semi; his chief security officer &lpar;CSO&rpar;&comma; Aliyu Musa&comma; and his senior special assistant &lpar;media and publicity&rpar;&comma; Garba Shehu&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The online newspaper said their results were confirmed positive during the week&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The report also claimed that the minister of information and culture&comma; Lai Mohammed&comma; is also down with the virus&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>None of them is thought to be seriously affected by the virus because they are fully vaccinated&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The report quoted Shehu as saying&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<em><strong>I have no confirmation of the cases you mentioned&comma; but yes I have been afflicted by the mild variant of the COVID-19&period; I felt okay from the beginning&comma; maybe because one had received all three jabs&comma; and right now&comma; I feel 100 per cent&period; I just finished my hour-long running exercise&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;But the strange thing about this ailment is that it is the scientists&comma; not you&comma; that will say you are okay&period; Right now&comma; I’m taking my prescriptions and isolating&comma; and would go back for a test to ascertain if the virus is still here or it has left me&period; Thanks for your goodwill&period;”<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Testing had recently been ramp up in the presidential villa in the wake of the Omicron variant to ensure the containment of the virus&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It is believed that the recent directive by the First Lady&comma; Mrs&period; Aisha Buhari&comma; to her staff to proceed on indefinite leave is not be unconnected with the need to check the possible spread of coronavirus around the first family&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>She had given a similar directive in the past as Covid-19 started to gain ground in the country&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>When Shehu was reached over the report Saturday&comma; he said&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<em><strong>Have you read the Premium Times report&quest; What I said in it is the truth to the best of my knowledge&period; What is true is that I know about myself that I’m self-isolating and taking my medication&comma; but I know of no other case&period;”<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Source&colon; Nigerian Tribune<&sol;p>&NewLine;