The Minister of State for Education, Emeka Nwajiuba, said that there was no “special provisions” for learning as it concerned physically challenged pupils during the COVID-19 pandemic other than the materials they were given before school closure.
The minister added that apart from the blind, who were given Braille materials home, and the deaf pupils who had sign language interpreters during television learning, other pupils with a form of physical limitation would have to make use of the online resources made available by the Federal Ministry of Education.
Also at the PTF briefing, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control said it had increased testing capacity to 23 laboratories across the country.
The Director General of the NCDC, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, stated that the agency spent the weekend doing a review of its work.
Ihekweazu said, “Now, we have 23 labs across the network that have to be kept going. The surveillance systems have to keep working. Whether it’s Saturday or Sunday, these things have to work.”
Community transmission in Lagos, Kano, other northern states
According to him, the country has to accept that there is community transmission, especially in Lagos, Kano and in a few other cities in northern Nigeria, including the Federal Capital Territory.
He stated, “In those areas, we will have to adapt our response to face the realities: this is a virus that is very easily transmissible, irrespective of the hard work that is being done across the country.
“So, as it spreads to other cities, we adapt and change our response in order to manage that. We keep pushing in states that have not yet collected samples to do a bit more.”
According to him, the agency has issued guidelines for private laboratories that want to take part in COVID-19 tests.
“So, any private sector lab that wants to join the COVID-19 testing can go and pick up these guidelines that we’re going to publish on our website tonight, look through it, define what they need to do to be able to join the network and we will support them through that process.”
The National Coordinator, Dr Sani Aliyu, said the PTF would continue to prioritise human and economic needs of the people based on global guidelines and protection of health services.
He also assured of the Federal Government’s determination to protect jobs in the formal and informal sector in spite of the pandemic.
Aliyu said the PTF had placed special interest on COVID-19 cases in the North- East and North -West as well as the spikes in hot spots in the country.
He emphasised the need for governors to identify spaces for isolation of persons who tested positive for coronavirus.
He expressed concerns that many states had yet to provide the 300-bed space.
PTF asks states to convert schools, abandoned buildings to isolation centres
He said, “It is important we start considering schools, academic institutions and even abandoned buildings because we need to build our isolation capacity.”
