Primary and secondary schools are now to resume mid-September, instead of October 13 as earlier directed by the Federal Government because of the Ebola threat.
Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu told State House journalists in Abuja yesterday that the Federal Executive Council decided to reopen the schools mid-September based on experts’ advice and the effective containment of the Ebola virus.
He said the council had directed the Minister of Education, Ibrahim Shekarau, to convene an emergency meeting with all state commissioners of education in order to agree on the new resumption date.
Shekarau’s spokesman Sule Ya’u Sule, when contacted, told Daily Trust yesterday that a meeting with state education commissioners would be held tomorrow.
Health Minister Chukwu said 296 persons are currently under surveillance in the country, including 255 in Port Harcourt and 41 in Lagos State, over the Ebola virus disease.
He said only two persons were currently being treated for full blown Ebola disease-the widow of Port Harcourt doctor, Samuel Emenuo, and his sister, both of whom are at isolation centres in Lagos and Port Harcourt respectively.
Chukwu, who put the total number of confirmed Ebola cases in Nigeria at 18 including the index case, explained that 14 were recorded in Lagos and four in Port Harcourt, adding that eight had been managed and discharged while seven had died.
The minister also hinted that the government was considering possible actions on the ECOWAS diplomat, Olu-Ibukun Koye, who transmuted Ebola virus to Port Harcourt.
“He is with us in Lagos, not in isolation because he is not sick anymore, but because of his aberrant behavior we needed to be sure that there is nothing further that can prove risky to society,” he said.
Meanwhile, Chukwu said in a statement from the Federal Health Ministry that another Ebola patient has died in the Port Harcourt isolation ward. This brings the total number of deaths from the virus to seven.
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