The Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government has extended the ban on travellers from Brazil, India and Turkey due to the rising COVID-19 cases.
Naija News reports that the federal government also added travellers from South Africa to the list for the ban that would last for a month.
This was disclosed at a press briefing on Monday by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Chairman of the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha.
He stated that the government had been reviewing the ban and decided that they should remain for another four weeks before it is further reviewed.
Mustapha said: “A few weeks ago, we announced additional measures to be met by passengers arriving from Brazil, Turkey and India. This action was due to the prevalence of variants of concern and the dangers associated with importation of the such virulent strain.
“The PSC has been reviewing these restrictions and is of the opinion that they should remain for another four weeks (one months) before it is further reviewed. South Africa, has however, been added to this category once more.”
Speaking on the Emirate Flight crisis, the SGF said that the PSC updated its position on the issue of emirates flights in and out of Nigeria.
According to him, the relevant ministries continued to review developments and concluded that any decision to fly the Nigerian route by an airline is a business decision.
He said conditions placed on such flights must conform with international civil aviation standards and must not be discriminatory and must respect Nigeria’s sovereignty.
Mustapha also said that in addition to the banned countries, the PSC has also shifted its focus on some African countries, including South Africa, Zambia, Rwanda, Namibia and Uganda.
“South Africa for example, recorded over 100,000 cases in the last one week while 20,000 was recorded in the last 24 hours,” he said.
“The four major variants of concern are now classified as Alpha (UK), Beta (SA); Gamma (Brazil) and Delta (India). The Delta variant which has wrecked devastating havoc, is not yet found in Nigeria hence the need to tighten our borders and be more vigilant.”
This article was originally published on Nigeria News