The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on 30th January 2020 a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) (1) . On 27th February 2020, the Federal Ministry of Health announced the first case of Coronavirus disease in Lagos State, Nigeria (2) (3) . In response to the outbreak of the COVID19 and after recording the first case, the Federal Ministry of Education (3) granted approval for the closure of all schools for a period commencing from Monday 23rd March 2020 to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID19).
Consequently, there have been debates worldwide after which reports (4) show that children under the age of 18 years represent about 8.5% of reported cases, with relatively few deaths compared to other age groups and usually mild disease. However, cases of critical illness have been reported.
According to the World Health Organization (4) spread of COVID-19 within educational
settings seems limited as few outbreaks in children or schools have been reported.
Consequently, there is a question of how effective is lockdown and shutdown of schools in curbing the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Covid-19 pandemic and school lockdown caused innumerable disruption to the lives,
learning, and wellbeing (5) of children in Nigeria and the world. Although there is a suggestion of school reopening leading to a slight increase of Covid19 cases in Nigeria, the government is left with no option but to weigh alternatives and execute the best alternative with precautions.
Sources:
1. https://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/health-emergencies/coronavirus-covid-
19/news/news/2020/01/2019-ncov-outbreak-is-an-emergency-of-international-concern
2. https://covid19.ncdc.gov.ng/
3. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1pwOKTDACF-YpAjbCURP5n2QiIiPB9xP0?usp=sharing
4. https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/coronavirus-disease-covid-19-schools
5. https://www.unicef.org/coronavirus/keeping-worlds-children-learning-through-covid-19
Recent Comments