All schools in Nigeria have been ordered to remain shut until 13 October as part of measures to prevent the spread of the deadly Ebola virus.
The new academic year was due to start on Monday.
But the education minister ordered the closures to allow staff to be trained on how to handle suspected Ebola cases.
Five people have died of Ebola in Nigeria. The West Africa outbreak has centred on Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, killing more than 1,400 people.
Probably a wise decision by the Nigerian government out of an “abundance of caution.” From what I understand, there remains only 1 active case of Ebola in Nigeria (i.e. a single patient being treated). Something like 5 – 7 of the other cases have recovered and recently been released. Good news! Hopefully Nigeria will stay Ebola free for the next two to three weeks (i.e. another 21 day incubation period), meaning that the outbreak there was successfully contained and stopped.
Sobering however that there is a brand new, apparently unrelated outbreak of Ebola now in Democratic Republic of Congo:
http://www.who.int/csr/don/2014_08_27_ebola/en/