The Nigerian government has revealed that most people, especially in the South-East region, do not believe in the existence of the deadly Coronavirus pandemic.

Dr. Sani Aliyu, National Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force (PTF), while addressing the press on Monday, said at least 60% of the people in the region believe COVID-19 is a scam.

He also said that some states denying the existence of the virus were putting their citizens at risk.

“There’s also significant disbelief in the danger and impact of COVID-19, in parts of the southeast where we did a recent survey, 60 per cent did not believe that COVID-19 was an issue at all. We clearly are not taking the pandemic seriously enough,” he said.

The PTF called on citizens to challenge those who appear in public places without their face masks.

“There’s partial to total non-compliance with face mask and physical distance in protocols by the public as earlier mentioned by the DG NCDC,” he said.

He lamented that many people only wear their face mask either to avoid being harassed by security agents, or when they are compelled to do so.