Jubilee Post News & Views
News Desk
With five fresh cases reported, Nigeria has restricted entry into the country for travellers from 13 countries including the US and UK.
Restrictions apply to travellers from countries with more than 1,000 cases. Including China, Italy, Iran, South Korea, Spain, Japan, France, Germany, the United States, Norway, UK, Netherlands and Switzerland. The National Centre for Disease Control of Nigeria announced this on its Twitter handle.
The officials tweet said, “The Federal Government of Nigeria has also suspended the issuance of visa on arrival to travellers from these countries. All travellers returning from these countries prior to the restriction will be in supervised self-isolation, monitored by the NCDC and Port Health Services.” The restriction came on March 20 and will continue till further orders.
Health officials also announced an additional five cases of the virus in the country, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to eight. One of them is has recovered. Earlier on Tuesday, NCDC had said a 30-year-old woman, who came into the country after a short visit to the UK tested positive to coronavirus after she developed symptoms including coughing and fever.
She went in to self-isolation in her home when she arrived in the country on March 13 and called the health agency when she developed symptoms, the NCDC said. The agency has now started search of all those who came in her contact as they will be put under monitoring.
Several other African countries are shutting their airports and land borders to keep out people from countries that have a high number of coronavirus cases. Tunisia suspended all international flights and closed the country’s land borders. It also banned gathering in markets and other places.
Sudan also sealed off all sea ports, land crossings and airports. Hundreds of international flights have been canceled, schools closed and travellers from coronavirus-hit countries have been restricted or, in some cases, banned by some African countries.
Egypt, with the highest number of coronavirus cases in Africa, announced it was suspending flights from all its airports starting Thursday. Djibouti that is yet to record a single case, but it has suspended all international flights to the country.
WHO has urged countries to not apply blind travel restrictions in a way that would impact trade and travel. WHO Africa’s Dr Mary Stephen said many African countries, which were initially screening passengers from countries with outbreaks and also placing travelers from virus-hit countries on quarantine, may now be making travel ban decisions based on panic.
South Africa has declared a “national state of disaster,” and put in place a number of travel restrictions on foreign nationals.
People in Cameroon are demanding government to close airports and borders into the West African nation after the country confirmed its fifth case of coronavirus on Monday.
