Richard Ginika Izuora
The Federal Government has announced that the decontamination of schools against the spread of COVID-19 in preparation for the resumption of class activities will begin today, Tuesday, July 7, 2020.
The Minister of Environment, Muhammad Mahmood, made the disclosure in Abuja at the briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19.
Mahmood also assured that it had enough hands on ground to carry out the disinfection exercise.
He said: “Earlier I told you that we have sat with the Ministry of Education. We have the list of all the schools that need to be disinfected before resumption.
“Well, what we plan to do now is to do (decontaminate) the centres that will be used.”
Further, the Minister revealed that the delay of the exercise was not intentional. He stated that the plan was to ensure that the chemicals were effective enough when the schools resume.
“The delay is because it is better to disinfect and decontaminate within a short period of time; so that the kids will be going back into these classes when they have been freshly decontaminated.
“This is because the chemicals we use are chemicals that are not long lasting. They have short contact time to do their job. So, we will be getting this done before Monday when they (school children) will be back to use these classes,” he said.
Nevertheless, he has assured parents that the schools would be safe for learning activities.
“So, it is between tomorrow (Tuesday) and the rest of the week. We have enough teams and people that we will be engaged to get that done. Be rest assured that your kids will be returning to a safe environment when they resume,” he said.
Mahmood stressed that the decontamination exercise would be done across the country.