LAGOS, July 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) — One of Nigeria’s largest universities sent residential students home and said it would suspend physical attendance of lectures as fears grow over a new wave of coronavirus in Africa’s most populous nation.
Nigeria, which has a population of some 200 million, has recorded around 169,000 cases and 2,125 deaths — figures that are believed to fall short of the real toll since the number of tests is low.
Last week, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control said it had detected the more contagious Delta variant of the virus, putting officials nationwide on alert.
The University of Lagos (UNILAG), with a student population of 55,000, said it reported a surge in the number of Covid diagnoses at its medical centre in the sprawling city of over 20 million inhabitants.
“To check the spread of Covid-19 on campus, the university senate has directed that all students vacate the halls of residence latest by 12.00 noon on Thursday 15 July 2021,” it said in a statement.
Lectures will be delivered virtually from July 26 in line with social and physical distance guidelines, it said.
On Thursday, Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) said it had approved the Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines and given conditional approval for Russia’s Sputnik V jab.
Nigeria started inoculating its population in March with four million doses of the Astrazeneca/Oxford University Covid-19 (Covishield) vaccine. Pfizer and the Johnson & Johnson jabs have also been approved.
Lagos state governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu urged residents last week to comply with Covid protocols as he warned of a third pandemic wave.
The country’s commercial capital has been the epicentre of Nigeria’s outbreak, accounting for more than a third of the nationwide total.
Nigeria has also barred passengers who are not citizens or permanent residents from entering the country if they have been in South Africa in the past 14 days over coronavirus concerns.
The decision announced last month comes almost two months after similar restrictions were imposed on travellers coming from Brazil, India and Turkey, sparked by the rise of more virulent Covid strains. — NNN-AGENCIES
