The Federal Government has threatened to shut down any National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) orientation camp that violates the COVID-19 protocol.

This was disclosed by the Minister of Youth and Sports, Sunday Dare, at the media briefing of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, held in Abuja on Monday.

The Minister said the lives and health of the corps members are a priority to the government and the affected camps will be shut and the corp members will be reposted to nearby states to continue the orientation exercise.

“Going forward, any state that refuses to cooperate fully — 100 percent — in the aspect of COVID-19 protocol adherence, full testing using the RDTs, and also data management by the approved staff of the NCDC, the health ministry, and also the trained doctors, that state will have its orientation camp shut down and the corpers would be sent to adjoining states,” the Minister said.

The Minister warned that any states that refuse to adhere to the safety protocols will have their orientation camp shut down.

According to figures released by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), as of January 25, the country has confirmed 122,996 coronavirus infections, out of which 98,359 recovered and 1,507 deaths have been recorded.