Ebola: Lagos Schools May Not Resume On September 22

Nigerian school pupils
The Federal Government had last week
announced that schools across the
country would resume on Monday,
September 22,2014 prompting
opposition from several sections
including the Nigerian Medical
Association (NMA).
The resumption date which had earlier
been shifted to Monday, October 13,
2014 in the wake of the outbreak of
Ebola in the country, has also been
denounced by the Lagos state
government which has come out to say
that the date is not advisable
considering the fact that stakeholders in
the state were still locked in crucial
discussions considering the matter.
According to a Vanguard report,
Governor Babatunde Fashola gave the
hint when he received the country
representative of the World Health
Organization (WHO) Mr. Rui Van Gaz
when the latter paid him a courtesy visit
at his Alausa, Ikeja office.
The governor said: " The state
government is in the process of
ascertaining through scientific risk
evaluation, whether it will accept the
date announced by the Federal
Government."
He said that if the evaluation eventually
turned out to be that the Monday,
September 22, 2014 resumption date
proposed by the federal government
would be risky, schools in Lagos would
not resume on the said date.
Mr. Van Gaz had earlier on praised
Governor Fashola and the Nigerian
medical community for their efforts in
curbing the spread of the virus, adding
that the Lagos state government should
not get complacent as a result of the
reduction in the number of cases
reported in the country, saying the
ongoing war against Ebola is one that
cannot be won unless the virus was
totally eradicated.
In Van Gaz' words "On schools
resumption, we need to ensure that the
schools are fully prepared in terms of
availability of water, soaps and
sanitizers. The teachers must be fully
aware of what needed to be done
when they are faced with any suspected
case of Ebola Virus Disease, EVD in their
school. The students must be
enlightened about the symptoms of the
deadly disease.
"Even though the number of Ebola cases
has reduced and most of the contacts
are out of the 21-day quarantine, we
should avoid any complacency. Until the
last case is over and surveillance
completed, we should not relent in the
effort at tackling the disease. We need
to learn from this experience by not only
dealing with the disease but to
strengthen the entire health system in
the country."
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN