COVID-19 Third Wave: Ensure Protocols Compliance, PSC warns Political Stakeholders

Victoria Ogunrinde

As the political scene set to get agog with activities, the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19 (PSC) on COVID-19 has advised all political parties, State governments, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIEC) to ensure strict compliance to the COVID-19 protocols in the conduct of all political events in the country.

The Chairman, PSC on COVID-19, Mr. Boss Mustapha in a statement on Friday noted that the strict compliance to COVID-19 protocols is important considering the cases of the Delta variant of COVID-19 in several states and the continued rising number of infections and hospitalization across the country.

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According to Mustapha, Political mass gatherings serve as super-spreader events for the propagation of COVID-19 infection in our communities in which such events must be carefully controlled to ensure maximum public safety in terms of risk of transmitting the infection among the vulnerable population.

“The PSC wishes to reiterate the significance of the publicized INEC policy on the conduct of political events and the Code of Conduct for Voters and Political Parties within the context of COVID-19.

“The PSC therefore cautions all political parties to institute public health and social measures in all locations where political events will occur”.

The PSC however highlighted measures to be followed in order to curb the spread of COVID-19 which include, mandatory use of face mask for everyone attending these political events. Persons without face masks should not be allowed access to the venues

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Hand hygiene facilities including soap and water/ hand sanitisers should be made available for people before gaining access to the venues

Others include, enclosed venues should be adequately ventilated and must not exceed 50% of venue capacity (minimum of 2 metres should be observed among people at the gathering).

And If essential, multiple locations or time-slotting should be used with appropriate numbers of people to enable adequate physical distancing in each gathering per time.

The PSC further noted that the political stakeholders must ensure and enforce compliance to the extent possible of these provisions and other safety measures to protect the Nigerian population.