Coronavirus: FG Announces Travel Ban on 13 Countries

• Coronavirus: FG Announces Travel Ban on 13 Countries

The Federal Government has finally announced a travel ban on 13 most affected nations after another patient tested positive to the novel coronavirus.

The Federal Government had previously rejected ‘traveling ban’ suggestions, saying the nation does not need extreme measures despite the World Health Organisation (WHO) declaring the coronavirus a global pandemic and the United States restricting flights from the Euro-area to curb the spread of the virus in the U.S.

However, calls by Nigerians to restrict movement from certain countries grew louder on Tuesday after a 30-year old Nigerian female that traveled from the United Kingdom on 13 March 2020 tested positive to the virus on Monday.

Boss Mustapha, the Secretary to the Federal Government on Media, announced at a media briefing on Wednesday that the federal government has issued a travel ban on the United State of America, the United Kingdom, China, Japan, Iran, Switzerland, Norway, Netherland, France, South Korea, Germany, Italy, and Spain.

Mustapha said “Federal Government is temporarily suspending the issuance of all visas on arrival.”

“This morning, we have found it necessary to brief Nigerians on further measures being taken after an assessment of the global situation. They are as follows:

“All persons arriving in Nigeria who might have visited these countries, 0fteen days prior to such arrival, will be subjected to supervised self-isolation and testing for 14 days;

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

“Federal Government urges Public Health Authorities of countries with high burden to conduct diligent departure screening of passengers and also endorses this 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.

“After due considerations of the trend and spread of the novel diseases, COVID-19 and the subsequent declarations of the diseases as Pandemic by the World Health Organisation WHO, the committee has subsequently urged that We upscale our emergency response system to the highest level and put in measures to stop further spread of the disease.

On Tuesday, Ayo Alana Idowu, the President of Bird View Communications, announced via his Instagram page that the United Kingdom returnee had been living with one of the company’s staff in the same house since she came into the country.

He said “Today, I made a painful, but necessary, decision to suspend operations at our business head quarter in Ikeja for the next 15 days, and subject about 15 employees in the building to Coronavirus test and subsequent government quarantine or self-quarantine. This was after a staff was exposed to a family member that returned from U.K. on Saturday and tested positive to Coronavirus in the early hours of today. The person that tested positive had lived in the same house with our staff member between Saturday and early hours of today.”

This new development might have forced the federal government to eventually issued a travel ban on the 13 most-affected nations, especially after 15 additional people are now likely exposed.

“Nigerian government reportedly traced the person to the Ogba address in the early hours of today, conducted the test and found out that the person was positive. Our immediate response to the situation was not to discriminate against the staff that was exposed, but to join hands to stop the spread of the global pandemic situation. We are providing all possible supports to keep our people safe and fight COVID-19 together.

“In the meantime, our business will mostly be remote, while our Lekki office will still welcome physical consultations. However, we will be putting up a notice that will advise a set of people, especially those who recently traveled in the last 14 days, to stay away from physical meetings and rather engage remotely or simply visit again after 14 days,” Ayo stated on his Instagram page.