COVID-19: 109 National Youth Service Corps Members Test Positive

There is panic currently at the various camps of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) across the country, as at least 109 prospective corps members were diagnosed with COVID-19.
The NYSC orientation camps were opened at the weekend for Batch B, Stream 1 of this year’s season of the national youth service.

The cases were detected following mandatory COVID-19 tests conducted on reporting corps members. The identified cases, our reporters gathered, have been moved to isolation centres in the respective states.
NYSC officials at the states level have constituted COVID-19 Vanguard, a team to aid enforce compliance to health protocols on the camps.

The federal government had, on Monday, raised the alarm over the spread of the contagious Delta variant of the virus to more states, as authorities mull fresh lockdown for the worst-hit states.
Data obtained from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) shows a sharp spike in incidences with 851 cases recorded in the first two days of August.
In Edo State, 17 corps members tested positive for the virus at the point of registration.

Meanwhile, the Chief Medical Director (CMD), Stella Obasanjo Hospital, Edo State, Dr Osagie Ebomwonyi, has disclosed that 17 corps members in the state are currently receiving COVID-19 treatment at the hospital’s isolation centre.
A staff of NYSC at the orientation camp in Mangu Local Government Area told our correspondent that the camp had recorded 26 cases since the commencement of the orientation exercise in Plateau State.
In Gombe State, 25 corps members posted to the state tested positive for the disease. Meanwhile, 14 corps members undergoing orientation have been confirmed COVID-19 positive in Sokoto State.

In Ogun State, a total of eight new cases of the disease were recorded on Monday.