COVID-19: We Shall Reopen Schools When It Is Safe For Our Kids- Minister
The Federal Government has said it is considering reopening schools in the country after lifting the ban it imposed on interstate movement to control the Covid-19 pandemic.
The government also released the report of its fact-finding committee sent to Kano state in the wake of mysterious deaths at a time it was battling to contain the spread of Covid-19 in the country.
This was as the federal government said it was pursuing precision actions in 20 local government areas which currently bear a 60 percent burden of the Pandemic.
While it said it has begun offering psychological support to families of patients, the government added that Nigerians who would be evacuated from the diaspora would now have to arrange for their own accommodation or self-isolate in their homes.
The federal government equally faulted states in the Southeast for not testing enough for Covid-19, saying out of the nearly 80,000 tests conducted so far, only about 1, 625 persons have been tested in the region.
On its part, the World Health Organization WHO has expressed concerns over the impact of Covid-19 on the growing resistance of bacteria to antibiotics.
Minister of State Education, Hon. Emeka Nwajiuba who dismissed social media reports regarding when schools would be reopened said the government would only do that when medical experts give the nod to so do.
Nwajiuba disclosed this on Monday in Abuja during the daily briefing of the Presidential Taskforce PTF on Covid-19. He said; “You had about neighbouring countries that reopened and shut down again. You have heard about numbers spiking as a result of reopening the schools. Of all the things I would like to do, I wouldn’t want to experiment with your children.
“What we are planning is to actually bring in those exit years first as soon as those who are in charge of the blockade lift it because there is no way we can open our schools if teachers cannot come. So, we are looking at somewhere after when this interstate lockdown is lifted because we need to have that kind of openness for even the children to move”, he said.
Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire who gave details of the Kano report, said about 50 to 60 percent of case fatalities were Covid-19 related.
He said; “This morning, the Federal Ministry of Health received the report of the Ministerial Task Team that went to Kano, to support the COVID-19 response with commodities, training, technical and confidence-building measures.
The visit was extended to fact-finding excursions to offer support to five other states.
With the observations and recommendations from the three-week assignment, the committee developed a Strategic Incident Action Plan to strengthen the coordination capacity of the health workers and improve community engagement in line with our response plan. “While over 150 health workers had been infected at the time of their arrival, there was no report of infection among health workers who had received training on infection prevention and control, thus restoring confidence. The intervention of the ministerial task force has been a game-changer for Kano and some northern States.
“With regard to unexplained deaths in Kano which occurred in April, the team confirmed from graveyard records, that a total of 979 deaths were recorded in 8 municipal LGA in the state at a rate of 43 deaths per day, with a peak in the second week of April.
By the beginning of May, the death rate had reduced to 11 deaths per day it used to be. The verbal autopsy revealed that about 56% of deaths had occurred at home while 38% were in a hospital. With circumstantial evidence as all to go by, investigation suggests that between 50-60% of the deaths may have been triggered by or due to COVID-19, in the face of preexisting ailments. Most fatalities were over 65 years of age”.
He said in the last 100 days since Covid-19 berthed in the country, Nigeria has tested over 76,800 persons, recorded 12,486 confirmed COVID-19 cases in 35 States and FCT, successfully treated and discharged 3,959 persons, but sadly lost 354 Nigerians, most of whom had underlying illnesses.
