FG places travel bans travel on China, USA, UK, Germany, 9 others

ITREALMS:

THE Federal Government (FG) has issued a travel ban on 13 countries over the spread of the Coronavirus, otherwise known as CoVID19, with effect from Saturday, March 21, 2020, reports ITREALMS.

Disclosing this development, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha, said Tuesday after a closed-door meeting with the Presidential Task Force Committee on COVID-19 in Abuja, that the ban affected some 13 countries including China, Iran, South Korea, Germany, Italy, USA, UK, Switzerland, Norway, Netherlands, Spain, France, and Japan.

He also said the committee after a meeting concluded that all officials in the Ministries, Department, and Agencies, comprising parastatals to stop all forms of travels out of the country for whatever reasons.

“At the conclusion of the inaugural meeting of the Presidential Task Force on the control of COVID-19, the committee has reached some decisions.

“We have decided to advise that all officials in the Ministries, Departments, and Agencies including parastatals, that government has banned all forms of travels out of the country for whatever reasons.

“Whether for meetings, bi-lateral, multilateral, conferences, seminars, workshops and any form of other ceremonies. And this ban will remain in place until further notice and until the situation of pandemic nature of the COVID-19 stops.

FG warned that “By this notice, any prior approval to travel abroad on official assignment during this period is accordingly resisted.”

As said by Mustapha, the committee equally urged for scaling up the nation’s health emergency system to the highest level and put in measures to curb further spread of the disease.

The committee headed by the SGF also advised the citizens strongly in their own interest to cancel or postpone all non-essential travel abroad including business and vacation trips.

“This is especially so, especially when it comes to the countries known to be seriously affected by the COVID-19.

“Secondly, we urge anyone returning to Nigeria from any country to strictly self-isolate for 14 days. And that all people returning from countries with high community transmission rate, especially countries that have recorded a thousand cumulative cases and above would be actively isolated for 14 days by the health authorities,” he said.

The nation’s chief scribe said that the Nigerian government was also in support of measures taken by the government of other countries, particularly high burden countries who have urged their citizens to stay home and avoid non-essential travels.

*Uboshe Uboshe with additional reports from NAN

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