COVID-19: 181 students, staff test positive in Lagos

Days after schools reopened for academic activities following a shut down forced by the outbreak of novel coronavirus, 181 students and staff members of an undisclosed private boarding school located in a suburb of Lekki in Lagos have tested positive for the disease.

Also, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) of the Kaduna State-owned university raised an alarm that 17 medical students of the institution tested also positive.

However, the Public Relations Officer of the university, Adamu Bargo, said only four students were suspected to have contracted the virus in July.

Giving details of the investigation, the Lagos health Commissioner, Prof Akin Abayomi explained that a 14-year-old SS1 female student fell ill on October 3 and was sent home after receiving first aid at the school. He added that the student subsequently tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday October 6 in one of the accredited private laboratories in Lagos. This prompted the testing of other students and staff of the school.

Abayomi stressed that appropriate steps have been taken to contain the spread and manage the positive cases. He insisted all the infected students are predominantly asymptomatic while some have very mild symptoms and none of the students has required hospitalization.

He noted that all parents have been contacted and counselled via a family zoom call on October 13 to further allay their fears, adding that communication between school authorities and parents is ongoing.

In Kaduna, ASUU said the affected students were among the 50 medical students recalled for examination few weeks ago.

The ASUU’s KASU branch Chairperson ýComrade Tukur Abdulkadir told newsmen that the body had opposed plans by the management to reopen the school but its entreaties fell on deaf ears.

“The decision by the management of KASU to re-open is in gross violation of the Covid-19 protocol as highlighted by the Presidential Task Force (PTF) and the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).”

However, the institution’s publicist said the four suspected students were isolated and later discharged back to the university community and were going on with their normal activities.

“The management is aware that ASUU is against the reopening because of their labour issue. Probably, they were not conversant maybe because they were on strike charting their own cause, so were not following what is happening now in the institutions,” he said.

ýHe said the examination will still go on on Monday but the students will strictly adhere with the COVID-19 protocols.