The Federal Government on Wednesday says consistent testing and non-compliance to non-pharmaceutical interventions are responsible for high reported cases of COVID-19 at the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) orientation camps.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, told newsmen in Abuja that scaling up of COVID-19 testing in various orientation camps across the country had increased the number of cases in the camps.
He said: “Two things are responsible for the high cases of pandemic reported at the National Youth Service Corps camps.
“One is because of consistent testing that has been taking place in the camps. The truth of the matter is that if we ramp up testing today, there will be more cases.
“Second reason for the high cases is that people have actually let down their guards. We are no longer obeying non-pharmaceutical interventions such as washing of hands regularly with soap and water or sanitising of hands when that (washing of hand) is not available.
“Also, wearing of face masks in public places, not gathering people for party, keeping social distancing.”
According to him, Nigerians are behaving as if COVID-19 is not real.
“If over 4.2 million people have been lost to the virus world-wide and it is not abating, so we need to take more seriousness on the protocols around COVID-19 especially on non-pharmaceutical interventions,” he added.
Mohammed also disclosed that the second phase of the vaccination exercise would target people from 18 years and above.
He explained that the 18 years and above were targeted because the younger ones, even in the US, were now becoming more vulnerable to COVID-19 infection and attack.
