NYSC says COVID-19 cases in orientation camp not rising

The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has refuted media reports that there have been rising cases of COVID-19 in its orientation camps, saying that no corps member has tested positive in any of the 37 orientation camps of the scheme across the country.

“The attention of management has been drawn to the write-up with the caption: ‘ Why the Rising Cases of Covid-19 in NYSC Camps’ trending on the new and traditional media,”, Press and Public Relations of the scheme, Mrs Adenike Adeyemi Director, said in a statement on Sunday in Abuja.

She explained that even before the commencement of the ongoing orientation programme, the scheme had, in collaboration with the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), tested all the prospective corps members reporting to the camps and those that tested positive to COVID-19 were handled by the NCDC

“No one, both staff and prospective corps member, that tested positive to COVID-19 was allowed into any of the orientation camps. Therefore, it is erroneous and very misleading to talk about rising cases of COVID-19 in NYSC camps,” she said.

“It is pertinent to state that the terminology, prospective corps member should not be confused with corps member as both cannot be used interchangeably, Adeyemi stressed.

She explained, “A corps member is a qualified Nigerian youth who has been duly admitted into the NYSC orientation camp, registered and formally sworn-in as a bona fide member of the service corps.”

According to her, the public should disregard the misleading story and clarification should always be sought from the NYSC or NCDC on issues pertaining to COVID- 19, so as to guard against the spread of false information.

She said that the scheme would never shirk its core responsibility of prioritising the welfare and security of corps members.