The Federal Government on Monday, March 16th, 2020 said travellers coming into the country from Germany, France, and Spain must have to undergo a secondary screening at Nigeria’s international airports and self-isolate themselves for fourteen (14) days.

He disclosed that the above-mentioned three nations had been added to the list of high-risk countries with widespread community transmission.

The Minister of State for Health, Dr. Olorunnibe Mamora, made this announcement in Abuja, while holding a press conference on coronavirus update.

Nigeria had already placed China, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea and Iran on the high-risk status.

Mamora noted that the step became necessary for travellers from the eight countries, following a review of Nigeria’s case definition for coronavirus was carried out.

The minister said,

Despite that, we have not recorded a confirmed COViD-19 case in the last one week in Nigeria, it is important to remember that we are still at high risk like other countries.

We continue to monitor returning travellers that fit our case definition and improve our surveillance, detection and risk communications.

Following the declaration of a pandemic and increasing spread in countries, we carried out a review of our case definition. We have added three new countries to the existing list of five high-risk countries with widespread community transmission. These are France, Germany, and Spain. Therefore, eight countries are on our priority list – China, Japan, Iran, Italy, Spain, the Republic of Korea, France and Germany.

Travellers from these eight countries will undertake secondary screening at the point of entry. They are also advised to self-isolate for 14 days on entry.

He remarked that between January 7th and March 15th, 2020, a total of forty eight (48) people, who met Nigeria’s case definition had been screened for COVID-19 in Lagos, Kano, Rivers, Edo, Ogun, Yobe, Enugu states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

He added,

47 have tested negative and have been cleared, one was positive (contact of the index case) and one result is pending. There has been no death. The index case is clinically stable and has improved greatly. We look forward to progressing early this week, to guide the medical team in discharging him.

Regarding the case of the woman who was isolated in Enugu after being suspected of showing symptoms that were synonymous with coronavirus, Mamora said she had tested negative to the virus.

He said,

In Enugu, a woman in her 70s returned from the United Kingdom and had symptoms of fever and mild respiratory illness. Her sample was collected for laboratory diagnosis and tested negative for COVID-19. Therefore, as of March 15, 2020, Nigeria has recorded two confirmed cases of COVID-19. One case is now negative and has been discharged from the hospital.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.