Date: 2020-08-07

Dr Wale Adeoti, a member of the COVID-19 Rapid Response Team/Infection Prevention and Control in Ilorin, Kwara state has posited that human activities are a strong origin of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) spreading vigorously.

Adeoti who is also a public health and infection control practitioner, stated this while delivering a "Health Talk" during the monthly meeting of the National League of Veteran Journalists (NALVEJ) at the Nigeria Union of Journalists' Press Centre, Ilorin.

He said COVID-19 is a virus stationed but the movement of human beings is how the virus becomes mobile and is able to spread everywhere.

He warned that there is community transmission of COVID-19 now, attributing this to negligence on the part of residents.

Condemned the congestion in both private and commercial vehicles which runs contrary to COVID-19 safety protocols, Adeoti further warned residents against hugging and shaking hands, noting that adherence to safety protocols remains the only antidote to the spread of the dreaded COVID-19.

He advised the aged to eat natural foods and shun processed foods adding that human beings could live on leaves and vegetables alone for survival.

Adeoti urged them to also do a regular checkup, especially their blood pressure and sugar levels.

That being said, Journalists were urged to embark on adequate publicity and enlightenment programmes by educating members of the public on the dangers inherent in the pandemic and the preventive measures they should adopt.

Earlier, the NALVEJ chairman, Alhaji Tunde Akanbi, had said that the "Health Talk" was in fulfilment of the promise of the new executives of the league.

Akanbi appealed to government to see Journalists as they would medical practitioners. Stating that Journalists were frontline workers exposed to the dangers of contagion as they also go on coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic.