From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
The Federal Government, yesterday, said the January 18 resumption date for schools was not sacrosanct as it could be forced to shift it to a new date.
This comes as the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 said it might impose a lockdown if Nigerians continued to flout laid down protocols to flatten the curve.
Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, at yesterday’s briefing said: “On the January 18 resumption, we are reviewing it, we are going to review it. At the PTF meeting today we considered it and tomorrow the Ministry is going to take it up. When we decided on that date it was just a target towards what we were working on. Of course we are keeping it in view and looking at what is happening in the society and then it is supposed to be subject to constant review. Even today at the PTF meeting we looked at the rising figures and thought about if we should probably take another look at it.”
National Coordinator, Dr. Sani Aliyu, similarly warned that if the country starts having huge numbers of deaths and the health system cannot cope, the taskforce would be left with no choice but to announce another lockdown.
Meanwhile, government is set to roll out Rapid Diagnostic Test-Kits (RDTs) in five tertiary health institutions in Abuja.
This followed the success recorded in using RDTs to test National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members in their camps.