13th November, 2020
The Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 on Thursday, November 12, 2020, announced that 12,500 out of the 66,000 prospective corps members for the 2020 NYSC Batch B mobilisation, have undergone the test for the disease.
Sani Aliyu, the National Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force (PTF), said this in Abuja at the taskforce’s briefing, he said; “We have commenced the process of testing corps members. In fact, we have already tested more than 12,5000 NYSC corps members so far using Rapid Diagnostic Test Kit test with confirmatory PCR.
We know that we are going into the Christmas period. The PTF is already looking at steps to minimise the surge in passengers’ numbers we see during this period.”
Aliyu reminded international graduates who would be travelling into the country for the exercise of the need to undergo the seven days compulsory self-isolation before going into the NYSC orientation camp.
He advised against non-essential international travels during the pandemic, while warning that the Federal Government would not relax the COVID-19 protocols during the upcoming Christmas holidays.
According to him, “We know that we are going into the Christmas period. The PTF is already looking at steps to minimise the surge in passengers’ numbers we see during this period.”
He recalled that of the first 5,000 plus passengers tested on arrival into the country after international flights resumed, about 105 of them tested positive for the virus.
He said with about 5,000 to 7,000 passengers arriving the country every day “the potential is that we could have up to 150 new cases being introduced into the country every day”.