Corona Virus: FG Places Entry Ban On 13 Countries Including US And UK

In a bid to curtail the spread of the Corona Virus in Nigeria and improve safety measures, the Nigerian government on Wednesday, March, 18, 2020, placed entry restrictions into Nigeria on 13 countries with high burden of the corona virus pandemic which has left the globe on an unstable state. The ban is inclusive of global powers like the United States and United Kingdom. At a press briefing on Wednesday morning, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on the corona virus, Boss Mustapha, made the stand of the Nigerian government known to the general public.

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The restriction will come into effect from Saturday  for four weeks, subject to review…All persons arriving in Nigeria who might have visited these countries 15 days prior to such arrival will be subjected to supervised self-isolation and testing for 14 days

Boss Mustapha

The Nigerian government also suspended temporarily, the issuance of visa on arrival for foreign nationals and equally advised Nigerians to cancel non-essential travel to the countries banned from entering the country for the mean time.

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 nonessential travels to these countries…The Federal Government urges public health authorities of countries with a high burden to conduct diligent departure screening of passengers and also endorse this travel advisory to their nationals to postpone travels to Nigeria

Mustapha

Mustapha noted that the new measures were put in place after proper assessment of the situation globally, and decided to ban countries with over 1000 cases domestically. The countries affected include: China, the United States, United Kingdom, France, Spain, South Korea, Italy, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, Netherlands, Japan, and Iran.

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Nigeria’s decision to suspend these countries from being able to enter her territory does not come as a surprise owing to recent developments that had seen new five cases of the virus confirmed by the Nigerian Ministry of Health on Wednesday. The Nigerian Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), on Tuesday, March 17, 2020, revealed that a 30-year old woman who had entered the country from the United Kingdom tested positive to the virus after developing symptoms like coughing and fever. Commenting further, the NCDC noted that it had started tracing citizens that came in contact with her and expect the number of new cases to be less owing to the fact that she had self-isolated herself on arrival into the country.

We expect the number to be small because of her sensible decision to go into self-isolation from the time of her arrival

NCDC

With this move, Nigeria joins other African nations in shutting their doors (airports and land borders) to countries that have high number of corona virus cases, a move meant to see to the protection of lives of citizens of the most populous black nation on earth.

Sources:

Punch NG

Edition.CNN

Featured Image Source: The Guardian NG

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I am a Lion, I love to hit heights that seem impossible so I can motivate others and prove doubters wrong. For me, impossible is nothing. I'm open to learning and I love to read, travel and meet new faces.

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