- Africa’s Most Populous Country Makes U-Turn on participation in 2020 West Africa Exams as COVID-19 Cases Exceed 30,000 mark
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, has given a hint on possibilities of keeping doors of its schools under lock and key till 2021.
Kenya, a leading economy in East Africa, has earlier come out clear on this: No Schools’ resumption until next year.
Nigeria’s Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, who conveyed opinion of the government while briefing State House Correspondents after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, declared;
“We will rather lose a year than exposing children to danger.”
The country has also backed out even from participation in the West African Examination Council (WAEC) examination.
This came as her COVID-19 cases surges above the 30,000 mark with over 600 deaths from the dreaded infection.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) announced 460 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 30,249.
The Government reversed its earlier directive on the resumption of schools in the country. It said that students and pupils in graduating classes who were billed to resume for revision classes preparatory to their final examinations will no longer be allowed to do so because of the worsening spread of coronavirus infections in Nigeria.
Adamu said that the Unity Schools and other schools under the supervision of the Federal Government will not resume classes until it was safe to do so.
The schools were earlier directed to resume classes in order to participate in the West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) scheduled to hold between August 4th and September 5th; the Junior Secondary School Certificate Examination (JSSCE) and the National Common Entrance Examination (NCE) for pupils in primary six.
COVID-19 narrative
Lagos State remains the epicentre for the disease with the highest number of confirmed cases and deaths in the country, while Zamfara has not reported any new confirmed case in the past 51 days.
The other five states with the highest number of confirmed cases are: FCT, Oyo, Edo, Delta and Kano State.
The 460 new cases were reported from 21 states: Lagos – 150, Rivers – 49, Oyo – 43, Delta – 38, FCT – 26, Anambra – 20, Kano – 20, Plateau – 18, Edo – 14, Bayelsa – 13, Enugu – 13, Osun – 12, Kwara – 10, Borno – 8, Ogun – 7, Kaduna – 6, Imo – 4, Bauchi – 3, Gombe – 3, Niger – 2 and Adamawa – 1.
Since the outbreak of the disease in Nigeria in February, a total of 169,629 samples have been tested.
NCDC said as of the time of reporting, there are 17,192 active cases of COVID-19 in the country, while 12, 373 have recovered and have been discharged.
Data from the health agency also indicates that the country is witnessing a high level of community transmission of the virus as 73 per cent of the total diagnosed cases reported unknown sources of exposure to the virus.
Only 2 per cent of confirmed cases were detected in people with travel history and 25 per cent of confirmed cases are reported in persons who were contacted to those with travel history.
“Till date, 30249 cases have been confirmed, 12373 cases have been discharged and 684 deaths have been recorded in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory,” the NCDC stated.
According to the NCDC, the predominant age-group affected is 31 to 40. In the gender ratio, the males are more infected than females.
A breakdown of the 30, 249 confirmed cases shows that Lagos State has so far reported 11, 670 cases, followed by FCT – 2,348, Oyo – 1,573, Edo – 1, 503, Delta – 1, 323, Kano – 1,291, Rivers – 1,284, Ogun – 1,057, Kaduna – 889, Katsina – 628, Borno – 563, Ondo – 550, Gombe – 524, Bauchi – 519, Ebonyi – 503, Plateau – 478, Enugu – 431, Abia – 400, Imo – 356, Jigawa – 318, Kwara – 307, Bayelsa – 282, Nasarawa – 234, Osun – 210, Sokoto – 153, Niger – 124, Benue – 121, Akwa Ibom – 112, Adamawa – 100, Anambra – 93, Kebbi – 86, Zamfara – 76, Yobe – 61, Ekiti – 45, Taraba- 27, Kogi – 5, and Cross River – 5.
With the increasing number of confirmed cases in the country, NCDC said in the absence of a vaccine, compliance with infection prevention and control (IPC) measures remains the most effective intervention to control the COVID-19 outbreak.
