COVID-19: School Reopening May Spike Hike In Cases, NMA Tells FG

The Federal Government has been told that the resumption of all public and private schools in Nigeria might hike the number of COVID-19 cases in the country.

This information was passed to the Federal Government by the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), as it urged the government to review its position on the resumption of schools in Nigeria.

President of NMA, Prof. Innocent Ujah, on Wednesday, January 20, said that there would be an increase in COVID-19 infections as schools reopened amid the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

Ujah said though schools would not be closed forever, there was the need for school administrators to enforce all COVID-19 protocols outlined by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to forestall the spread of the infection.

He said: “We are not saying they should not reopen schools because we don’t know how long the pandemic will last. But if we have to open schools, NYSC camps, market places or airports, we should obey the NCDC protocols. Once we do that, we are likely to reduce the rate of infections and the extent to which people get infected.

“We expect that. We expect a spike. Even the National Identity Number registration is another avenue to harvest more cases. People are falling over one another, no social distancing or use of hand sanitisers or regular handwashing.”

Ujah, however, urged the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to suspend the NIN enrolment process as the country is in a health emergency whereas the NIN enrolment is not an emergency.

The NMA president further noted that the laxity of Nigerians to COVID-19 protocols in the months of September and October 2020 caused the spike that plunged the country into the second wave of the virus. Nigerian governor rejects COVID-19 vaccine, says it is meant to kill people.

He said: “The reality now is that we have an upsurge as this variant of Covid-19 appears to be more deadly. The infectivity rate appears to be high, so, we expect that a higher number of Nigerians will be infected and probably many more will die –unfortunately many are already dying; we are losing our colleagues –nurses, doctors. Only today, one of our colleagues died of COVID-19 in Lagos.”