The Minister of Youths and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, says a new date for the 20th National Sports Festival (NSF) will be announced based on developments around the COVID-19.
Dare had earlier announced that President Muhammadu Buhari has endorsed the postponement of the 20th NSF as part of deliberate efforts to check the possible spread of coronavirus in the country.
While speaking later with State House correspondents, after a closed-door meeting with President Buhari, Dare gave no indication of when the Festival would now precisely hold.
“A new date for the festival will be announced based on development around COVID-19,’’ the minister, who spoke in the company of the Minister of State for Health, Adeleke Mamora, said.
He pointed out that the decision to postpone the event followed a meeting of stakeholders, who advised President Buhari appropriately.
Speaking also, Mamora said the postponement was in the overall interest of Nigerians and national health security.
“It is better to err on the side of caution. Therefore, we conveyed to Mr President our thought and Mr President thereafter kindly agreed that it was best for us to have this postponement.
“One of the things that we need to give attention to is the possibility of people carrying the virus even without knowing —- what we call A-Symptomatic. That is, they carry it but they don’t even know because they are not manifesting symptoms.
“And what we need so far is that up to 80 to 81 percent of people would either be A-Symptomatic. That is, not showing any symptoms or, where they show symptoms, the symptoms may just be mild and moderate.
“This is a major source of what we call community transmission.
“So, the principle of social distancing has to be respected. That is preventive or advising against the congregation of a large number of people, starting from the NSF.
“That also extends to the religious gathering or any other gathering that will have a large number of people. It is not advisable at this point in time.’’(NAN)
