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 Coronavirus: Nigeria finally imposes travel restrictions on 13 countries

Coronavirus: Nigeria finally imposes travel restrictions on 13 countries

PREMIUM TIMES

The federal government on Wednesday announced the restrictions of entry into the country for travellers from 13 high-risk Covid-19 countries.

The countries are China, Italy, Iran, South Korea, Spain, Japan, France, Germany, United States of America, Norway, United Kingdom, Netherlands & Switzerland.

Each of the countries has over 1,000 cases of the disease, according to the Presidential Task Force on COVID19 which released a sttaement Wednesday morning.

The 12-member committee is chaired by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha.

The new directive is coming less than 12 hours after the government banned all foreign travels for public officials in the country.

Details of Ban

Mr Mustapha provided details of restrictions in a statement sent to journalists.

“The Federal Government of Nigeria is restricting entry into the country for travellers from the following thirteen (13) countries; China, Italy, Iran, South Korea, Spain, Japan, France, Germany, Norway, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Netherlands and Switzerland. These are all countries with over 1,000 case domestically;

“All persons arriving in Nigeria who might have visited these countries, fifteen days prior to such arrival, will be subjected to supervised self-isolation and testing for 14 days;

“The Federal Government is temporarily suspending the issuance of all visas on arrival;

“The Federal Government is also counselling all Nigerians to cancel or postpone all non-essential travels to these countries; and

“The Federal Government urges Public Health Authorities of countries with high burden to conduct diligent departure screening of passengers and also endorse these travel advisories to their nationals to postpone travels to Nigeria.

“These restrictions will come into effect from Saturday, 21st March, 2020 for four (4) weeks subject to review,” Mr Mustapha said indicating the restrictions will not commence immediately.

The travel restriction is believed to have been made after the government confirmed five new cases of the disease, all in travellers from the UK and the U.S.

This brings to eight the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Nigeria, although one of the earlier three has fully recovered.

The health minister, Osagie Ehanire, confirmed the new cases at a press briefing in Abuja Wednesday morning.

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