NAFEST 2020: ‘Marshalls’ enforce COVID-19 safety protocols
Enforcement
By Peter Amine
Jos, Nov. 26, 2020 (NAN) COVID-19 marshals set up by the Health Committee of the 2020 National Festival for Arts and Culture (NAFEST) holding in Jos are enforcing safety protocols against the Coronavirus disease, at the festival.
The committee’s secretary, Mr Daling Dung, told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday that the measure was to ensure that everyone at the venue of the event adhered to the safety protocols.
“The first thing we did before the festival started was to fumigate the venues and there will also be another fumigation after the festival.
“We set up the COVID-19 marshalls to enforce the wearing of face masks, washing of hands and application of hand sanitisers.
“As you can see over there, they are telling the people to wear their face masks before going into the hall of the festival.
“They also go round from time to time to tell people within the vicinity to put on their face asks and apply hand sanitisers,” Dung said.
Dr Clement Akpos, the festival’s Head of Doctors and Nurses’ team, told NAN that all participants were screened at their various camps before letting them into the venues.
“Why we are doing that is because we are sure that the environment we are bringing them in has been fumigated.
“We had a case where someone’s temperature was very high, we isolated and asked him to rest for sometime, after an hour, we checked and the temperature was normal.
“Rising temperature may not necessarily indicate COVID-19 but we have to rule that out first,” Akpos said.
He also said that apart from COVID-19, all the contingents were screened for blood pressure and blood sugar.
According to him, those found with very high blood pressure were not allowed to participate in the events to prevent any form of casualty.
NAN reports that while social distancing is being observed at some points at the venues, not all persons are wearing face masks.
Mrs Victoria Adams, a food vendor at the venue, said she always wore her face mask before attending to her customers.
According to Adams, she made the wearing of the mask compulsory because she did not know the COVID-19 status of her customers.
However, Mr Paul Tarkende, a participant, said he would not wear a face mask because he found it difficult to breath whenever he put it on.
Tarkende stated, however, that he was doing his best to maintain social distancing.
“Apart from maintaining social distancing, I have a hand sanitiser on me, I apply it often to stay safe,” he said.
PAT/AMY
Edited by Abdullahi Yusuf