As the number of death from COVID-19 keeps increasing, an environmental expert, Dr Franklin Tanee has called for more enlightenment of the people at the grassroots.
Dr Tanee who is the Head of Department of Plant Science and Biotechnology in the University of Port Harcourt told The Tide in a telephone chat that community transmission will increase if the people at the rural areas are not well informed.
He said,” My worry is that many of those in the rural areas and religious bigots don’t even believe that there is coronavirus and that is a major problem because that will help spread the virus. So we need to enlighten the people at home so they can improve on their hygiene.”
Tanee maintained that prevention remain key way of avoiding the plaque, stressing that virus infections are deadly and difficult to control and treat.
“Unlike fungi and bacteria virus thrive when they gets into living thing but itself is not a living thing. And the phony aspect is that it does not show on the face”, Tanee stated.
The university don commended government effort in shutting down the economy as a way of reducing contraction and spread but said more education needs to be done at the rural areas.
Meanwhile, Dr Tanee has urged for immediate investigation of the cause of the massive death of fishes along the Bonny and Andoni river banks in the state.
He recommended that government should engage experts to ascertain the cause of the death of those species of fish.
The environmentalist reasoned that though the development might be as a result of pollution but stressed that a thorough investigation need to be done.
“Even though it might be as a result of human action but the real cause need to be verified” he added.