Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU have come out to say that physical contact with their students on campuses is very possible.

The chapter Chairman, the University of Ilorin, ASUU, Prof. Moyosore Ajao recently revealed this during an interview with the press.

According to him, physical contact can happen if there is strict compliance with COVID-19 safety protocols, and online teaching is also a possibility.

Prof. Ayo Akinwole added that each university has the responsibility of assessing the situation on their own campus while providing all necessary things for the well-being and safety of all.

His words, “As I am talking to you, I am in my house and online teaching is different from physical contacts with students. If you read the directive by the National Universities Commission, NUC, well, it emphasised the need to comply with the PTF mandate on COVID-19 safety protocols.”

“We are ready to work and have physical contacts with our students only in line with the safety protocols that have been set down.”

The ASUU Chairman, the University of Ibadan, Prof. Ayo Akinwole added, “Yes, the NUC gave a directive, but it was clear that safety protocols on the prevention and management of COVID-19 must be adhered to as stipulated by the PTF on the disease. Apart from the directive by the NUC, the management of each university has the responsibility of assessing the situation on their own campus and provide all necessary things for the well-being and safety of all.”

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Coronaviruses are a group of related viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans, coronaviruses cause respiratory tract infections that can be mild, such as some cases of the common cold (among other possible causes, predominantly rhinoviruses), and others that can be lethal, such as SARS, MERS, and COVID-19. Symptoms in other species vary: in chickens, they cause an upper respiratory tract disease, while in cows and pigs they cause diarrhea. There are yet to be vaccines or antiviral drugs to prevent or treat human coronavirus infections.

Coronaviruses constitute the subfamily Orthocoronavirinae, in the family Coronaviridae, order Nidovirales, and realm Riboviria. They are enveloped viruses with a positive-sense single-stranded RNA genome and a nucleocapsid of helical symmetry. The genome size of coronaviruses ranges from approximately 27 to 34 kilobases, the largest among known RNA viruses. The name coronavirus is derived from the Latin corona, meaning “crown” or “halo”, which refers to the characteristic appearance reminiscent of a crown or a solar corona around the virions (virus particles) when viewed under two-dimensional transmission electron microscopy, due to the surface covering in club-shaped protein spikes.

Human coronaviruses were first discovered in the late 1960s. The earliest ones discovered were an infectious bronchitis virus in chickens and two in human patients with the common cold (later named human coronavirus 229E and human coronavirus OC43). Other members of this family have since been identified, including SARS-CoV in 2003, HCoV NL63 in 2004, HKU1 in 2005, MERS-CoV in 2012, and SARS-CoV-2 (formerly known as 2019-nCoV) in 2019. Most of these have involved serious respiratory tract infections.