The Lagso State chapter of the Environmental Health Officers Association (EHOAN) has identified banks’ Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) a source of community transmission of coronavirus in Nigeria.
The association’s President, Mr. Taiwo Awonuga, made the observation in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.
Awonuga was reacting to findings that social distancing has been jettisoned at many ATM points.
He argued that it is the responsibility of banks to ensure their customers obey all safety guidelines.
Awonuga decried the rise in the number of infected persons in the country and tasked banks to streamline their services to be in tandem with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) social distancing recommendations.
“The rat race going on at many ATMs outlets is not good for the fight against communal transmission of the pandemic. People line up in the sun amid sweat and droppings from their bodies.
“It calls for a change in attitude from banks and customers too, if we must halt community spread of the coronavirus, especially in the suburb where ATMs are few but attract crowds.
“The confusion at ATM points is a common sight, because people need money to cater for daily needs. In that zeal to get cash, they lose their guard and get infected by vectors around them,” he said.
He advised people to be safety conscious in public, calling on the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on the management of the coronavirus to compel banks to open up more cash dispensing outlets to forestall people getting infected at crowded ATMs.
- NAN