Coronavirus
FG issues reviewed protocol for international passengers from UK and South Africa
The FG has reviewed the quarantine protocol for all passengers coming into the country from the UK and South Africa.
The Federal Government, through the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on Covid-19, has reviewed the quarantine protocol for all passengers originating from the United Kingdom and South Africa with effect from December 28, 2020.
This follows the recent spike in cases of Covid-19 in Nigeria and the reported a highly transmissible new variant of the virus in the United Kingdom and South Africa.
READ: Fake labs, travel frustrations, passengers allege COVID-19 test Scams at airport
This disclosure is contained in a letter with a reference no NCC/DG/AIR/11/16/286, issued by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), on December 26, to all Nigerian and foreign operators flying into Nigeria, and signed by its Director-General, Captain Musa Nuhu.
READ: FG orders passengers from UK, South Africa to register on travel portal
The reviewed protocol from the NCAA is as follows:
For flights and passengers originating from the United Kingdom and South Africa with the final destination being Nigeria, the following shall apply:
- Passengers must present the following 2 documents in order to be allowed to board their flights to Nigeria.
- Pre-departure PERMIT TO FLY/QR code generated from the Nigeria International Travel Portal (https://nitp.ncdc.gov.ng) showing evidence of payment for the post-arrival day 7 COVID-19 PCR test and;
- Documentary evidence of a “NEGATIVE COVID-19“ PCR result done within 96 hours (4 days) of boarding from a verifiable laboratory or health facility.
- On arrival in Nigeria, passengers would be received and processed separately by the Public Health Authority on arrival in Nigeria.
- All passengers would be required to self-isolate for 7 days after arrival, followed by a COVID-19 PCR test.
- Passengers with a post-arrival Negative Covid-19 PCR result can exit isolation at day 8. Those with a Positive Covid-19 PCR result will be referred for isolation and further management.
- A dedicated register of arriving passengers from the United Kingdom and South Africa would be opened for enhanced surveillance and active enforcement of the protocols.
READ: European countries ban flights from UK as new Covid-19 strain spreads
Affected Airlines
This applies to all airlines with passengers originating from the United Kingdom and South Africa regardless of transit arrangements.
Applicability
This shall be applicable to scheduled and non-scheduled flights conveying passengers originating from the United Kingdom and South Africa. The earlier quarantine protocol which became effective on September 18, 2020, shall continue to subsist for a flight originating from other countries except for the validity of the Pre-departure PCR test result which now be 96 hours (4 days) from date of departure.
READ: South Africa denies UK’s claim of new strain of coronavirus
Date
The effective date is Monday, December 28, 2020, at 0001 Local Time (2301UTC).
The NCAA DG pointed out that punitive measures would be taken against airlines who would failed to comply with the content of the All Operators letter.
These punitive measures include:
- Airlines shall be fined $3,500 (Three thousand five hundred dollars) for each defaulting passenger.
- Airlines may be required to return non-Nigerian defaulting passengers to point of embarkation.
- Repeated non-compliance by any airline will lead to the suspension of the Airline`s Approval/Permit to fly into the country.
READ: Econet founder Strive Masiyiwa secures $100m investment in Nigeria data center
What you should know
- The Federal Government had earlier reviewed and emphasized on strict adherence to Covid-19 protocol following a surge in the number of cases across the country.
- This is compounded by the spread of a new strain of the coronavirus disease which has been discovered in the UK and South Africa.
Coronavirus
Covid-19: 70% of doctors in Nigeria are infected – NARD
NARD has claimed that the majority of its members are infected with Covid-19.
The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has claimed that majority of its members are infected with Covid-19.
This is according to Dr Adejo Arome, NARD’s First Vice President while speaking during an interview with Channels Television on Sunday.
Arome said that almost 70% of its members in “clinical practice” are infected with Covid-19. He also lamented that “almost all the doctors in the UCH Pediatrics Department, Lafia in Nasarawa State, had been infected with COVID-19.”
Dr Arome noted that he had been personally exposed to COVID-19 but could not be tested due to lack of access to a testing facility.
READ: Covid-19: Second wave more catastrophic, we lost 20 doctors in one week – NMA
He also complained that some hospitals do not only lack hand gloves, they give one face mask to each of their doctors to use for two days.
The association noted that lack of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for its members and non-disclosure of true symptoms of sickness by people seeking treatment is contributing to this infection rate.
NARD is, thus, appealing to the government to come up with policies that would make it unlawful for patients to hide their medical conditions.
READ: Over 700 NYSC Batch B members test positive for COVID-19 – PTF
What they are saying
Arome, speaking on Channels TV, illustrated the challenges facing doctors in this pandemic era. He said:
“I must tell you that the morale among we doctors is very low at this point in time. It is so disheartening that the number of health workers being infected with Covid-19 is increasing daily – and it seems nothing is being done to reduce this number.
I heard that almost all the doctors in certain health facilities, including the UCH are infected. It is like that every day and I believe that every doctor in clinical practice should have been exposed to Covid-19.
Apart from PPE, people are not being truthful. They go to one hospital the doctor there tells them this is what I’m suspecting and when they are told what is wrong, they run away praying and thinking that they will get a different diagnosis elsewhere.
READ: Nigeria records 1,964 new cases of Covid-19, highest daily surge
“I think it is high time the Federal Government stepped up and brought out policies that will make it unlawful for patients and their relatives to come to the hospital and lie to doctors because by so doing, they are currently exposing us and our families.
“In a pandemic, every patient coming into your consulting room is suspected to have COVID-19 until proven otherwise. But the truth is when we don’t have everything that we need to work with, you don’t expect the doctor that is treating the patients not to examine them.
READ: Covid-19: FG to buy Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine
“You will go to some hospitals and they will give a doctor one face mask for two days. You don’t even have gloves. You keep on writing prescriptions for patients to buy gloves and you as a doctor will feel bad because some people don’t even have food to eat, so why should you be writing them prescriptions to be buying gloves?
“Once one of us gets exposed, that person ends up exposing more than 4,000 patients because the doctor-patient ratio in this country is one to about 4,000 patients.”
READ: Covid-19: Sanwo-Olu discloses how Lagos intends to fund vaccination programme
What you should know
The weekly epidemiological report of COVID-19 situation by the NCDC shows that:
- Lagos has the highest number of covid-19 related deaths – 271 (18.9%).
- Edo State recorded 127( 8.9%) deaths out the 1,435 so far in the country.
- The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has 118 (8.2%)
According to Nairametrics Covid-19 tracker, as of Sunday 24th January 2021
- The total number of cases stood at 121,566.
- The total number of death stood at 1,497.
- The total number of tests conducted stood at 1,258,534.
Coronavirus
Lagos State already making contacts with vaccine manufacturers – Sanwo-Olu
Governor Sanwo-Olu has stated that the Lagos State Government has commenced talks with Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers.
The Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu disclosed that the state has started talks with vaccine manufactures, citing that the state will only work with frontline suppliers.
This was disclosed by the Governor during an interview on Channels TV on Sunday evening.
“We want the Federal government to take the lead and rightfully so, as a sovereign they have all of the protocol and contacts to make that happen.
“We are conversing, we have a meeting on Tuesday with PTF and NCDC under the Federal umbrella. We want the nation to take the lead (vaccine procurement) and as a state, we are giving them that space, because they are a sovereign they can have that conversation,” the Governor said.
The Governor stated that Lagos has started conversations with companies including AstraZeneca and Pfizer and will skip the operations of middlemen so as not to run foul of protocols.
“But other than that, as a sub-national, we are also taking our destiny to our hands, we have started conversations with some of the vaccine manufacturers,
“Pfizer, for example, we have made contact with them. The Oxford-AstraZeneca, I have made contacts with them, Johnson and Johnson are not out yet
“We are making our own sub-national contacts, parts of the things that will come out of it is that once we see what the nation is doing because this is something that we do not want to deal with middlemen or people that are not the frontline suppliers,
“We don’t want to run foul of the protocols, but we have started making contacts at board level with the manufacturers.
“How that will work out, we still have a week or 2, but we have started making contacts already,” he said.
Sanwo-Olu said that Lagos does not have to vaccinate the 20 million population, but “The plan is to ensure that there is herd immunity and that typically speaks about 50-60% of your population.”
What you should know
- Nairametrics reported last week that the Governor warned that the rising second wave of the pandemic in Lagos has seen the demand for oxygen rise 5 times from 70 six-liter cylinders per day to 350 six-liter cylinders at Yaba Mainland Hospital alone.
- The Governor added that Lagos is closely monitoring plans by the FG to acquire vaccines and said the State has also resumed discussion with potential manufacturers. He also said the State is building its own regulatory framework for vaccine distribution.
Coronavirus
Covid-19: EU says it will force vaccine companies to respect supply contract
The EU has said that it will push pharmaceutical companies to fulfill commitments to the supply of Covid-19 vaccines.
The European Union (EU) has said that it will make pharmaceutical companies respect contracts they have signed for the supply of Covid-19 vaccines.
The statement by the EU follows a series of delays and slowdowns in the supply of the vaccines from some drugmakers.
According to a report from Reuters, this disclosure was made by the European Council President, Charles Michel, while speaking to Europe 1 radio on Sunday, January 24, 2021.
Michel in his statement said, “We plan to make the pharmaceutical companies respect the contracts they have signed … by using the legal means at our disposal.’’
While he made no mention of possible sanctions, Michel said that the EU would insist on transparency about the reasons for the delays.
He pointed out that after Pfizer’s first warnings about delays of several weeks, the EU had managed to reduce these delays by taking a tough stance.
Michel also said, “We banged our fist on the table and finally announced delays of several weeks turned into a slowdown of deliveries.’’
What you should know
- It can be recalled that Pfizer Inc last week announced that it was temporarily slowing supplies to Europe to make manufacturing changes that would boost output.
- On Friday, AstraZeneca also said that initial deliveries to the region will fall short because of a production glitch.
- Pfizer had been set to deliver about 80 million doses of the Covid-19 to the 27 countries by March.
