The claim made yesterday by the federal government that the EndSARS protests’ grounds nationwide would provide breeding grounds for the spread of COVID-19 has received the flak of protesters who called out the federal government on its hypocritical stand concerning Covid-19. According to one of the protesters who identified himself as Dr. Akeem Olu, the claim by the Chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, Mr. Boss Mustapha was simply another weak aim at discrediting the protests because the same government has not been observing the Covid-19 rules in many of its events. Collaborating Dr. Olu’s stand, Ms. Judith Adiele of the Coalition of Feminists, one of the groups organizing the protests questioned the rationale behind such claims when the same government has organized two gubernatorial elections in the last two months and also opened the National Youth Service Corps, camp among many crowd gathering events the federal government sponsored. She highlighted that efforts by the government to tarnish the protests have failed so far thus the resort to subtle blackmailing.
It could be recalled that Mustapha proposed that definitively in two weeks’ time, if all the persons that congregated at such hotspots are tested, the country will be contending with an increase in COVID-19 infections. He warned that persons that attended the protest without putting up any form of protection for themselves and others are potential carriers and spreaders of the virus for their families and others.
‘’That is why we have to be extremely careful when we congregate. When you gather in that atmosphere where people do not bother about whether they have face masks on, you are creating a potential opportunity for carrier vectors that will convey this virus back to wherever. When they get back home innocently their families will be infected,’’ he explained.
He appealed to the EndSARS campaigners to harken to the government invitation for dialogue, saying the country cannot afford to lose momentum and risk a second wave of coronavirus that might overwhelm its health systems. While considering the country of 250 million people to be lucky for recording fatalities only within the range of 1,106 deaths, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation warned that the curve should not be aggravated.
He noted that the country has less than 4,000 active cases, while 4,876 patients recovered and were discharged last week, which represented a 388 per cent increase when compared with 967 people discharged in the previous week. He also put the total number of patients that have recovered and discharged after treatment at 56,611, representing 92 per cent of all cases since Nigeria recorded her index case in February.
Also, speaking at the PTF briefing, the National Coordinator of the PTF, Dr. Sani Aliyu stated that corps members will not be allowed to interact outside their platoons when the NYSC orientation camps reopen across the country on November 10.
He said that if any corps member contracts coronavirus at orientation camp, it is all the members of his platoon that will be isolated rather than closing down the entire NYSC orientation camp. He also called on Nigerians to take precautions while travelling or planning to receive travellers from the United States of America, United Kingdom, India, Russia and France.