Health Experts Raise Alarm Over Plans By FG To Reopen Schools Amid Coronavirus Pandemic

 

Health experts have kicked against federal government’s plan to reopen schools, according to a report by ThisDay.

 

Experts say the decision was ill-timed and capable of slowing down the fight against COVID-19 in Nigeria.

 

Speaking to THISDAY Thursday, the President, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, said the COVID-19 infection rate was still climbing, and that it would be difficult for children to strictly adhere to physical distancing and other protocols put in place for the prevention of the virus.

 

He said: “We know government cannot shut down schools for too long, so it is understandable it is mulling the idea of resuming through a plan to stagger the time between morning and afternoon classes, but the question we must ask the Ministry of Education is when it is planning to implement this.

He recommended that government should wait until September before reopening schools, emphasizing that this must be done when infection rates were going down, and not with its present rate of spread.

 

Ohuabunwa said: “We should implement the school reopening at a time when we have contained the virus because children are the most difficult set of people to ask to maintain social distance, hygiene, and other protocols. And we have seen that this disease affects children as well, with even more deadly variances as seen in the United States and Europe. Any attempt to open schools too soon will create a lot more havoc for Nigeria,” he warned.

 

In the same vein, the Immediate past National Chairman, Association of Community Pharmacist of Nigeria (ACPN), Dr Albert Kelong Alkali, said government must not jump the gun because it wants children to gain lost grounds, adding that it must first ensure teachers and communities were adequately trained on health protocols, coupled with obvious reduction of COVID-19 cases before reopening.

 

He said: “We must be careful because children are not like adults. Many adults are not even adhering to physical distancing not to mention children. Government can start with the senior students, say by July, and then in September ask the younger pupils or students to resume.

“Nobody would want to play with our children because they are too young to follow these health protocols. Their health should matter most before any other thing. Opening schools in June will be disastrous. July should look more like it after all necessary things have been done by the government,” he said.