Ebola: Schools May Resume Mid-september – Health Minister

The Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, said on Wednesday that students in private and public schools in the country may resume from holiday by the middle of this month.

Prof. Chukwu disclosed this to State House correspondents at the end of Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan.

At the briefing were the Ministers of Information, Labaran Maku, Transport, Umar Idris, National Planning, Abubakar Suleiman and Power (State), Mohammed Wakil.

The Federal Government through the Minister of Education, Ibrahim Shekarau, had last month announced October 13 as resumption date for all schools.

Chukwu said the expert opinion on Ebola, with the strong containment efforts by the government, is that the students can resume earlier than October 13.

The new resumption date, he said, will be announced by the Minister of Education after meeting with states Commissioners for Education and other stakeholders, who were involved in fixing the October 13 date.

The minister, who gives weekly report to the Council on the Ebola disease brought to Nigeria by the late Liberian- American, Patrick Sawyer in July, said that there are presently 296 contacts under surveillance in the country.

The 296 under surveillance, he said, include 255 in Port Harcourt, Rivers State and 41 in Lagos State.

After three weeks of surveillance in Lagos, he said 320 persons have been removed from surveillance list in the state.

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