FG to begin nationwide decontamination of schools

The Federal Government has announced plans for the disinfection and decontamination of schools nationwide.

Muhammad Mahmood, the Minister of Environment disclosed this at the Presidential Task Force briefing on COVID-19 in Abuja.

He said the Federal Ministry of Environment would get the data of schools nationwide from the Federal Ministry of Education before commencing.

Mahmood said, “We are initiating a programme of decontaminating and disinfecting our schools before they open.

“Because subsequently in the phases (of reopening the lockdown), I believe we will get to that point when we start opening the schools.

“So, we will be liaising with the Federal Ministry of Education to make sure we have the needed data to carry out the exercise.”

He also noted that ministry had been making efforts to commence the programme, but didn’t state when the exercise would start.

Mahmood said, “Today we will like to brief you on our first video conference with our Environmental Health Sanitation desks across the country, the 36 states plus the FCT.

“Also in attendance was a representative of the World Health Organisation, the purpose of which is to build additional capacity and to reiterate adherence to the guidelines in this response to COVID-19.”