The management of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) says it will continue to take proactive measures to wage unrelenting and aggressive war against any epidemic ravaging the society.
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The Ondo State Coordinator of NYSC, Mrs Grace Akpabio, stated this on Saturday, while welcoming officials of the state Ministry of Health to the Permanent Orientation Camp, Ikare Akoko.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the ministry officials were on camp to sensitise corps members on Lassa fever and Coronavirus.
Akpabio told the medical team from Epidemiology department of the ministry that since the camp started officially on Tuesday, the scheme had provided some safety measures.
Besides, she said that the scheme had taken some far-reaching actions in order to guard against the deadly virus among corps members.
She listed some of the steps taken to include the provision of infrared thermometers, hand sanitisers, face masks, wash hand basins and antiseptic soaps in all the state secretariats and at strategic locations at orientation camps nationwide.
Akpabio intimated the team that sensitisation leaflets on Lassa fever and Coronavirus had been shared to all the 2020 Batch ‘A’ (Stream 1) corps members currently in the camp.
This, she said, was to give them requisite information on the viruses and how to adequately contain them.
The state coordinator, while thanking the ministry for playing supportive roles by lending technical support to the scheme, urged the corps members not to see the sensitisation as an avenue to seek relocation outside the state.
“My dear excellent and wonderful corps members, our Creator has a reason for bringing you to this state and I want to urge you not to walk away from God’s grace.
“We have health and medical challenges everywhere, but what you need to do is to adopt good hygienic habit and safeguard yourselves from vulnerability associated with the virus.
“Have the implicit faith and absolute trust in God that brought you here, and let not your path be troubled, for He is more abundantly able to see you through the service year,” she said.
In her remarks, the Deputy Director and team leader, Mrs Adeola Ogunbiyi, said that the sensitisation was not to scare the corps members, but to let them know the truth about Lassa fever and Coronavirus.
She enjoined them to display high sense of responsibility during the programme, which she described as beneficial and lifesaving.
Explaining the steps to avoid contraction, the Assistant State Epidemiologist, Dr Gbelela Dolani, advised the corps members to regularly and thoroughly clean their environment to prevent the spread of the virus.
Dolani urged the corps members to practise respiratory hygiene by covering their mouths and noses with tissue whenever they coughed or sneezed and then dispose the used tissue immediately and properly.