By Chinenye Festus:-
At least not less than 20 students participating in the ongoing West African Senior School Certificate Examination have contracted dreaded Covid-19 in Bayelsa State.
The permanent secretary of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Inodu Apoku, made this known during a meeting of COVID-19 Task Force at Government House, Yenagoa. Apoku said among 600 candidates that were screened for writing the examinations in the state, 20 positive cases were recorded.
Recall that prior to the start of the examination, the examination body assured candidates infected with the COVID-19 not to panic, saying “the virus is not a death sentence”.
And adequate provision will be made to accommodate them in the ongoing examination. The head of the examination council in Nigeria, Patrick Areghan, who restated this on Wednesday at the end of a monitoring visit to the Federal Government Boys College, Apo, Abuja.
“I want to assure you and the Nigerians that anywhere we have COVID-19 candidate, we make sure that he or she writes the examinations. It is not a death sentence, there is no stigma.
“We don’t want anybody to miss the exams. It’s no fault of theirs. We can defeat this disease provided we take first-line responsibility he said.