The Federal Government says it is initiating a programme of decontaminating and disinfecting schools nationwide before they open. The Minister of Environment, Muhammad Mahmood, stated this in Abuja on Monday at a briefing of the Presidential Task Force COVID-19.
He said: “We’re initiating a programme of decontaminating and disinfecting our schools before they open.
“Because subsequently in the phases (of relaxing the lockdown), I believe we’ll get to that point when we start opening the schools. “So, we’ll be liaising with the Federal Ministry of Education to make sure we have the needed data to carry out the exercise.” National Coordinator, PTF, Sani Aliyu, said the task force had mobilised 3,300 informers to carry out house-to-house search in Kano metropolis for patients of the virus.
He said the PTF had also secured, through its partners, an additional 20 rapid response teams that would enable the task force to reach people who needed to be tested in Kano witontinue to work closely with the state government to ensure that the problem and the issues in Kano are resolved as quickly as possible. We have a strong team, supporting the case management aspect of the response, led by the Federal Ministry of Health.
“We’ve, through our partners, also funded two facilitators by local government area and will be establishing one sample centre per local government area in the state. We’re grateful to INEC for mobilising 30 vehicles to be sent to Kano and at least 25 ambulances mobilised through the federal government, Dangote Foundation and the BUA Group,” he said.
Director-General, NCDC, Chikwe Ihekweazu, said the focus now was on Kano State because of the increasing cases of infections of the COVID-19 in the state. He said the government would channel its energy and resources to beefing up the response apparatuses, including testing and treatment of infected persons in the state. they do not necessarily reflect the organizations stand or views on issues.