Nigeria Bans Travellers From Brazil, India, Turkey Over 3rd Wave Pandemic

<p><em>Nigeria bans travellers<&sol;em><br &sol;>&NewLine;<strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> reports that Nigeria announced on Sunday that it has banned passengers from Brazil&comma; India and Turkey as the countries battle third wave of coronavirus with effect from May 4&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;People who have visited the country within fourteen days preceding their travel to Nigeria will also not be allowed entry&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The Nigerian authorities said airlines that fail to comply with measures will pay &dollar;3&comma;500 penalty for each defaulting passenger&comma; with non-Nigerians to be denied entry and returned to the country of embarkation at cost to airline&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;This regulation&comma; however&comma; does not apply to passengers who transited through these countries&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Consequently&comma; authorities also advised Nigerians to avoid any non-essential international travels to any country at this period and specifically to countries that are showing rising number of cases and deaths&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The chairman of the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19 and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation &lpar;SGF&rpar; Mr Boss Mustapha said that Nigerians and those with permanent resident permit who visited <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;wsj&period;com&sol;">Brazil&comma; India or Turkey<&sol;a> within Fourteen &lpar;14&rpar; days preceding travel to Nigeria shall be made to undergo seven &lpar;7&rpar; days of mandatory quarantine in a Government approved facility at the point-of-entry city and at cost to the passenger&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;In our effort to continue to safeguard the health of the Nigerian population&comma; as well as to minimize the risk of a surge in the number of COVID-19 cases in Nigeria&comma; the Presidential Steering Committee carried out a risk assessment of countries with high incidence of cases&comma;” Mustapha said&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The risk assessment took into consideration the epidemiology of cases&comma; prevalence of variants of concern and average passenger volume between Nigeria and each country amongst other indicators&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Of the countries assessed&comma; this interim travel advisory applies to three &lpar;3&rpar; countries in the first instance&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;These precautionary measures are a necessary step to minimize the risk of a surge in COVID-19 cases introduced to Nigeria from other countries&comma; while national response activities continue&period;”<br &sol;>&NewLine;He explained that such passengers within 24 hours of arrival shall take a COVID-19 PCR test and if positive&comma; the passenger shall be admitted within a government-approved treatment centre&comma; in line with National treatment protocols&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;If Negative&comma; the passenger shall continue to remain in quarantine and made to undergo a repeat PCR test on day 7 of their quarantine&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;According to him&comma; passengers arriving in Nigeria from other destinations must observe a 7-day self-isolation at their final destination&comma; carry out a COVID-19 PCR test on day 7 at selected laboratory and would be monitored for compliance to isolation protocol by appropriate authorities&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The SGF observed that PSC after due consideration has therefore approved the implementation of the measures and has reduced the validity period of pre-boarding COVID-19 PCR test for all Nigeria-bound passengers from 96hrs to 72 hours adding that henceforth PCR test results older than 72hours before departure shall not be accepted&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;