The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 in Nigeria has warned states against rushing to reopen schools saying such action have escalated COVID-19 management situation in some other countries.
Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Chairman of the PTF, Boss Mustapha, speaking on Monday August 31 in Abuja said it would be in the best interest of Nigeria to stick to it’s slow phased easing of lockdown rules because it was effective.
“It is in the above context that the PTF appreciates the on-going calls for re-opening of the education sector and indeed some sub-nationals are already making preparations for such.’ Boss Mustapha said.
“Whilst the PTF does not discourage making such preparations, we need to be guided by experiences from countries such as Germany, France, the United States and the UK where opening of schools in some cities led to an increase in confirmed cases and fatalities.”
He also said more sectors of the economy may soon be reopened, and that the PTF would present its recommendations to President Muhammadu Buhari this week, which will determine the next phase in the national response.
According to Boss, the last three weeks had shown a slowdown in the number of confirmed Coronavirus cases in the country, as in the last four months of testing, the lowest daily figure of confirmed cases (138) was reported on Sunday August 30th.