138 prospective NYSC members test positive for COVID-19

Ihekweazu

The Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Chikwe Ihekweazu, said 138 prospective members of the National Youth Service Corps tested positive for COVID-19.

Ihekweazu said the safe reopening of the NYSC orientation camps across the country was successful.

He stated that none of those who tested positive were allowed into the camps.

“A total of 34,785 corps members and members of the camp communities have been tested so far in the last weeks of which only 138 was found positive, which is 0.4 per cent prevalence and 1 in 200 people,” he said.

Ihekweazu said those who tested positive were either managed at home or in a treatment centre depending on if they had symptoms and what state they were in.

The DG said the next challenge would be how to work with education stakeholders to ensure safe reopening of the universities.

“Universities have proved to be slightly risky; it has its unique challenges, but we are confident that we can address this as we have done in other sectors like aviation,” Ihekweazu stated.

We may review our policy if figures continue to increase

The National Coordinator of the PTF, Sanni Aliyu, cautioned against non-essential travels and warned that government would not hesitate to review its policy if importation of infections was noticed.

He said, “At the moment, we have a lot of travel restrictions going on in Europe and other places. If numbers continue to increase and we notice importation of infections, we will review our policy.

“I am not saying we will ban flights but I am also saying that we will do everything necessary to protect ourselves from a surge.

“So, if you don’t want to be stranded whether in Nigeria or outside the country, think again about travelling over this period. If it is not essential, stay put. There will be other seasons, there will be other celebrations especially with vaccines now being available across the board it is very likely that travels will be sorted, so all the testing and monitoring will go away.”

Aliyu said the PTF had compiled the list of the first 300 passengers that have not done the test up to day 14.

“We are going to streamline these results and create a COVID-19 restriction list for passengers that have not abided by our protocols and these passengers will not be allowed to fly for a period of six months.

“We hope that we don’t have to continue doing this and people will continue to comply with our protocol,” he said.
~Punch

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