The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), has said orientation camp exercise was suspended as a precautionary measure to avoid cases of crornavirus (COVID-19).
The Brigadier General Shuaibu Ibrahim who spoke to Daily Trust on the phone, said no case of the virus has been recorded as at the time of this report.
Corps members were asked to leave the orientation camp Wednesday morning by the management of NYSC after spending only a week for a three-week orientation course.
NYSC had, last Thursday 12 March, performed the swearing-in ceremony for the 2020 Batch A, Stream 1 corps members, who came into the orientation camps on Tuesday 10 and were expected to leave on March 30.
Brigadier General Ibrahim said during the Ebola virus, the corps members were also in camp but their activities were suspended to prevent the spread of the virus. The NYSC boss said although the scheme had put in place precautionary measures earlier, there was still need to suspend the camp activities to ensure that no case is recorded.
He said the fear in camps was becoming alarming as “anyone who sneezed, coughed or had a fever was a scare to other corps members.”
President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday ordered the postponement of the National Sports Festival earlier scheduled to begin this month in Edo State. And Brigadier General Ibrahim said if such decisions could be made by the government, then the scheme should also take up such measures. He said the corps members will be recalled to camp to complete their orientation camp exercise whenever the ministry of health and National Commission for Disease Control (NCDC) confirm that the virus is no longer a threat.
He also said the corps members were not sent home but were directed to report to their places of primary assignment while the issue of the virus is monitored.
