PRESS STATEMENT: MANAGING PUBLIC GATHERINGS DURING A PANDEMIC
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Many governments across the world have put restrictions on public gatherings because of the current global pandemic. The reasons for this are clear however this action is not feasible for the medium or long-term as people cannot be prevented from gathering on a sustained basis. Unfortunately it is not certain when this pandemic will end. Some experts predict months and others even longer than that. Public gatherings cannot be prevented until the pandemic is over because this would not be a realistic course of action. For this reason it is important for government to develop workable solutions to address this problem to ensure that public gatherings are effectively managed even while the pandemic is being defeated.
The following recommendations are made:
For educational institutions, government needs to develop guidelines for schools, polytechnics, universities etc to operate during a pandemic period. All necessary safety methods need to be incorporated as well as guides for physical distancing for pupils and students. Educational institutions may need to develop a roster or scheduling to allow some students come in early (7:30am for example) while others later (11 am). The lower class grades could come in earlier while the higher grades come in later (for example). This allows the schools to maximize all their facilities. Lesson times could be reduced while homework increased (for example, additional learning could be delivered on smartphones). Government should engage educational associations (including parent teacher associations) to ensure that measures taken are practicable and will encourage increased pupil and student participation while ensuring optimal safety standards are in place.
Government needs to develop an effective framework to leverage more on e-learning in a way that is effective, consistent and does not marginalise children from poor homes. There needs to be an action plan to migrate educational institutions towards e-learning.
For religious gatherings, government should engage religious leaders nationwide to determine ways and methods that religious organisations can function in a pandemic period (facemasks, hand sanitisers and washing apparatus at the entrances, physical distancing of members, disinfection of premises etc). These can be worked out in such a way as to ensure that safety is given priority status while religious gatherings are allowed to function.
Religious organisations need to strongly consider developing scheduling systems for their members. These could be manual or via technology (mobile app for example). In this way members need to book for seats on the app and receive a text confirmation (for larger organisations). A more manual process (for smaller organisations) may be to call into a number and make a booking or just send a text message making a booking for a certain number of seats. To accommodate more people and keep up with safety requirements several sessions can be run back to back within short intervals.
All religious organisations need to also build robust social platforms which enable a real experience and interactivity of all segments of their programmes. Religious organisations can consider pooling resources to launch televisions stations dedicated to airing their programmes for those who may only be able to participate in that way.
Government needs to develop guidelines for restaurants, markets, supermarkets and other public places. These guidelines need to be easy to understand, clear and communicated to market associations and relevant stakeholders.
While government is aggressively and commendably working to stem the pandemic and efforts are being made to eradicate it completely government needs to develop an action plan to get the society running again even if this may not be exactly how things were before the pandemic.
Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria! Nigeria shall prevail! God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria!
Signed
Abiodun Ajijola
National Coordinator
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