The Presidential Steering Committee, PSC, on COVID-19 in Nigeria has warned political parties across the country against the non compliance with non pharmaceutical protocols.
The warning was issued on the heels of the recent confirmation of more cases of the Delta variant of COVID-19 in several States and the continued rising number of infections and hospitalization across the country.
The PSC is calling on all political parties, State governments, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIEC) to ensure strict compliance to the COVID-19 protocols in the conduct of all political events in the country.
According to the Committee, political mass gatherings serve as super-spreader events for the propagation of COVID-19 infection in our communities.
” Such events must be carefully controlled to ensure maximum public safety in terms of risk of transmitting the infection among the vulnerable population”.
The PSC reiterates the significance of the publicized INEC policy on the conduct of political events and the Code of Conduct for Voters and Political Parties within the context of COVID-19.
It therefore cautions all political parties to institute public health and social measures including mandatory use of face mask, Hand hygiene facilities including soap and water/ hand sanitisers, enclosed venues should be adequately ventilated and must not exceed 50% of venue capacity.
It also advised that if essential, multiple locations or time-slotting should be used with appropriate numbers of people to enable adequate physical distancing in each gathering per time.
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