The Federal Government of Nigeria has announced it has banned 13 countries from entering the the country, noting that it is part of its measures to stem the spread of the Coronavirus.
The countries are China, Iran, South Korea, Germany, Italy, United States, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway, Netherlands, Spain, France, and Japan.
Disclosing this in a statement at a press briefing on Wednesday, March 18, 2020, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation SGF and chairman of the Presidential Task Force for the Control of Covid-19, Mr Boss Mustapha, said that the 13 listed Countries have recorded at least 1,000 domestic cases of the pandemic disease.
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“The restriction will come into effect from Saturday for four weeks, subject to review, “ he said.
Mustapha said the new measures were taken after an assessment of the global situation. He said, “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.
He also announced the temporary suspension of the visa-on-arrival policy stating that, “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.”
Meanwhile, the Federal Ministry of Health has announced five new cases of coronavirus on Wednesday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in Nigeria to eight.
Yetunde Adegoke
