Lagos, Nigeria’s COVID-19 epicentre, threatens tougher restrictions, protocol enforcement for ariline passengers from Brazil, Turkey, India
The government of Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, has raised the alarm over the possible third wave of COVID-19 in Lagos as it slammed fresh 14-day quarantine on foreigner-visitor into the country through the airport in the state.
This measure arose from importation of new strains from inbound travelers, especially from countries like India, Brazil, Argentina, Iraq, Qatar, Peru and Uruguay.
These nations are all being currently ravaged by a vicious third or fourth wave.
The government warned that all the strides gained in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic would be lost, if the nation’s borders are left porous and unprotected against the importation of new and mutant strains which may trigger the oncoming of a third wave.
Hence, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who is the Incident Commander in the state, has directed the state government to immediately enforce that all the protocol just announced by the Federal Government will be adopted for every inbound person which include banning entry to non-Nigerian passengers who have been in Brazil, India or Turkey in the last fortnight due to concerns over the spread of coronavirus in those three nations.
He added that Nigerians and permanent residents of Nigeria who have been in those countries in the last 14 days will have to undergo mandatory quarantine for a week in a government-approved facility on arrival and all passengers arriving in Nigeria will now have to show a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours of travel rather than the previous 96 hours period.
Following the directives, the state Commissioner for Health, Prof Akin Abayomi, who disclosed this, said that he had instructed that all these protocols be made more stringent to protect the residents of Lagos State from an impending third wave.
As part of these protocols, Abayomi said passengers are to mandatorily isolate for the required seven days and will be strictly monitored through phone calls by our EKOTELEMED platform and physical visits to the passengers’ homes by our surveillance teams.
