By Babajide Okeowo
The President of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Prof. Innocent Ujah has given reasons for the spike in COVID 19 cases in the country in recent time.
Chief amongst the reasons according to Ujah was the unpreparedness of schools for reopening. He also cited the non-compliance with COVID 19 protocols in market places and the recent elections in Ondo and Edo states as other reasons that have contributed to the spike.
Ujah made these disclosures at a webinar organised by the Alliance on Surviving COVID-19 and Beyond, yesterday.
“When the government wanted to reopen the schools, I cautioned them and said if the schools must be reopened, there must be necessary preparation to prevent the children from contracting the virus.
One parent wrote the Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19 that I don’t want people to go to school and that I was being wicked.
Now, we all know better; a lot of children who sat for the last WASSCE were infected. Today, some corps members have also been infected. These are some of the things that could have been prevented if sufficient precautions were taken before reopening the schools,” he said.
The NMA President also lamented the disregard for social distancing by Nigerians, saying this had also contributed to the rising COVID-19 cases.
“Social distancing in my opinion has failed. During the campaign for the governorship elections in Edo and Ondo States, everyone was falling over each other.
If you go to the market places, social distancing protocol is not being observed. In that case, are we prepared? I think we need to do a lot of sensitisation,” Ujah added.
Recall that Nigeria has been battling increasing incidents of the COVID 19 pandemic in recent times which prompted the Presidential Task Force, PTF on COVID 19 to reel out new measures to curb the spread of the disease.
