Coronavirus: 11,500 hand sanitisers to be used during 20th NSF in Benin
Benin – The Edo Government on Saturday in Benin said it had acquired a total of 11,500 hand sanitisers for athletes and officials during the upcoming National Sports Festival (NSF) tagged “Edo 2020’’.
The Edo Deputy Governor, Philip Shaibu, who is Chairman of the festival’s Local Organising Committee (LOC), disclosed this to newsmen while speaking on the state’s readiness to host the historic festival.
“For the LOC, we have procured 11,500 pieces of hand sanitisers which will be used by all the athletes and officials that will be at the festival.
“And, also, we have set up hand-washing stations in all the events’ centres and hotels which will be used for the festival.
“Also, we have 15 entry points’ screening centres which we are setting up for all the teams that will be in Edo. They all have to go through proper screening at these entry points.
“We will commence daily screening for all the athletes and officials before every event. We have two isolation wards that we have put in place for possible eventualities.’’
He said discussion was ongoing with the Federal Ministry of Youths and Sports Development and the festival’s Main Organising Committee (MOC) on the need to have foreign athletes participating in Edo 2020.
“Looking at the statistics, we have discovered that those foreign-based athletes are less than one per cent of the entire athletes.
“Discussions are ongoing on if there is the need to allow them participate or we should exclude them from participating to avoid any problem, such as that of an outbreak of a disease.
“Some of these athletes may be coming from Europe where there are possible cases of COVID-19. These are not confirmed yet, but discussions are ongoing to see if the foreign-based athletes will participate,’’ Shaibu said.
The LOC chairman however assured that the state was ready to host an historic festival that has never been hosted by any state in the past.(NAN)
AJOM/FF/OLAL
