Information minister Lai Mohammed has accused the National Youth Service Corps of disobeying COVID-19 safety protocols, resulting in a surge of coronavirus cases in NYSC camps across the country.

Mr Mohammed also claimed that more positive cases were reported because the federal government had increased COVID-19 testing.

“Two things are responsible for the high cases of pandemic reported at the National Youth Service Corps camps. One is because of consistent testing that has been taking place in the camps. The second reason for the high cases is that people have actually let down their guards,” Mr Mohammed stated. “We are no longer obeying non-pharmaceutical interventions such as the washing of hands regularly with soap and water or sanitising of hands when that (washing of hand) is not available.”

According to him, Nigerians are behaving as if COVID-19 is not real.

“Nigeria is already in the third wave, and this case has been compounded by Delta variant. We have identified the Delta variant in several states in Nigeria also. The Delta variant is about 60 times more potent than the wide COVID II,” explained Mr Mohammed. “It is very virulent, deadly, and more easily transmissible. It appears that while the normal variant will take about seven days to manifest, the Delta variant manifests within two days of being infected. So, it is a real challenge for us.”

But he assured that the PSC is not resting on its laurels by providing necessary directives to the national response team to tackle the virus.

The minister also disclosed that the second phase of the vaccination exercise would target people 18 years and above.