Ekiti Relaxes COVID-19 Measures; Resumes Full Academic Session |The Source

By Ayodele Oni

Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, says Nigeria is not yet out of the global COVID-19 pandemic, hence the need to continue to observe all necessary protocols.

In a broadcast Sunday evening in Ado Ekiti, Fayemi announced a review of the COVID-19 measures under which religious worship centres in the state can now hold services on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays as against previous  arrangements.

Also, more classes in public and private schools are to resume academic activities as from September 21.

Affected classes are SS two, JSS three, and primary six, September 24; SS one,JSS two,  primaries four and five, September, 28; JSS one, primaries one to three, October 19 while kindergarten and nursery classes will join them on November 2.

The Governor directed tertiary Institutions in the state to put in place necessary facilities and liase with the COVID-19 committee to confirm their readiness to resume as from October 2.

He pointed out that since the SSS 111 students were allowed to resume last month to enable them sit for their final examinations, there was no recorded case of the pandemic among the students.

However, the Governor explained that the increase in the number of recorded cases in the state in the last one month was due to a rise in the number of tests that were carried out.

He put the number recorded in the state  from August 20 till date at 147, while it was 152 cases from March to August 20.

Owners of Events Centres can now put their facilities into use but on the condition that they must not accommodate more than 50 people to enable them maintain the social distance order.

The Governor called on security agencies in the state to redouble their efforts at enforcing the use of face masks, saying “until vaccines are discovered for its cure, Covid 19 will still be with us.”

Fayemi reiterated the commitment of his administration to ensure that more people in the state benefit from COVID-19 Palliatives from the Federal Government .

According to him, 200 businesses have so far benefitted from COVID-19 loan by the Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN).