Coronavirus
FG suspends passports of 100 Nigerians for refusing post-arrival Covid-19 test
100 Nigerians have had their passports suspended for flouting the obligation to test within 7 days of arrival in Nigeria from overseas travel.
The Federal Government has announced the suspension of 100 passports belonging to Nigerian passengers who refused to undergo second Covid-19 tests immediately after arriving Nigeria.
This was disclosed by the Chairman, Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, Mr Boss Mustapha, at the daily press briefing with newsmen on Tuesday in Abuja.
READ: Fake labs, travel frustrations, passengers allege COVID-19 test Scams at airport
Mr. Mustapha also added that the names of the Nigerians who refused to take a second test would be published on January 1st, 2021 and their passports suspended for 6 months.
“With effect from Jan. 1, 2021, passports of the first 100 passengers, who failed to take their day-seven post-arrival polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, would be published in the national dailies,” he said.
READ: FG moves to ease congestion on arrival at airports, introduces new online procedure
”Our National Response is passing through a challenging phase due to the seriousness of the second wave of infections in Nigeria.
”Week 52 has so far given us the highest number of infections in a single week to date. Our analysis shows that 16 out of every 100 tests carried out are positive.
READ: FG orders passengers from UK, South Africa to register on travel portal
”We are also seeing increasing transmission among younger people and this is not considered good and safe. We must, therefore, exercise utmost restraint by taking responsibility,” he said.
He added that with the rising number of cases in Nigeria, the FG aimed to ensure proper containment of the disease to reduce risk to health workers.
READ: Covid-19: Europe launches mass vaccination of doses to end the pandemic
”With the increasing number of infections and hospitalisation, our objectives are to: ensure that infection, prevention and control (IPC) is properly instituted to minimise spread and exposure of health care workers to the virus.
”Ensure that those who require hospitalisation are well managed; those requiring medical attention for other ailments gain access to Treatment at medical facilities; and critical care is available and deployed, especially where oxygen is needed.
“The situation in Abuja and its environs has been of concern to the PTF,” he added.
READ: World Banks provides NIMC with £172 million Covid-19 protective equipment
What you should know about the passport suspension penalty
Nairametrics reported last week that the Federal Government announced that it would suspend the passports of 100 Nigerians for 6 months and also publish their passport numbers for “flouting obligation to test within 7 days of arrival in Nigeria from overseas travel.”
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Business News
COVID-19 Update in Nigeria
On the 21st of April 2021, 65 new confirmed cases were recorded in Nigeria
The spread of novel Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) in Nigeria continues to record significant increases as the latest statistics provided by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control reveal Nigeria now has 164,488 confirmed cases.
On the 21st of April 2021, 65 new confirmed cases were recorded in Nigeria.
To date, 164,488 cases have been confirmed, 154,441 cases have been discharged and 2,061 deaths have been recorded in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
A total of 1.84 million tests have been carried out as of 21st April 20th, 2021 compared to 1.81 million tests a day earlier.
COVID-19 Case Updates- 21st April 2021,
- Total Number of Cases – 164,488
- Total Number Discharged – 154,441
- Total Deaths – 2,061
- Total Tests Carried out – 1,838,174
According to the NCDC, the 65 new cases are reported from 11 states- Lagos (41), Kaduna (6), Kano (3), Rivers (3), Plateau (3), Akwa Ibom (2), Imo (2), Oyo (2), Edo (1), Bauchi (1), and Osun (1).
Meanwhile, the latest numbers bring Lagos state total confirmed cases to 58,209, followed by Abuja (19,754), Plateau (9,049), Kaduna (9,036), Rivers (7,070), Oyo (6,842), Edo (4,898), Ogun (4,647), Kano (3,942), Ondo (3,226), Kwara (3,120), Delta (2,617), Osun (2,572), Nasarawa (2,380), Enugu (2,281), Katsina (2,097), Gombe (2,034), Ebonyi (2,020), Anambra (1,909), Akwa Ibom (1,843), and Abia (1,683).
Imo State has recorded 1,655 cases, Bauchi (1,540), Borno (1,337), Benue (1,188), Adamawa (1,063), Niger (930), Taraba (910), Bayelsa (885), Ekiti (869), Sokoto (775), Jigawa (527), Kebbi (450), Cross River (394), Yobe (365), Zamfara (240), while Kogi state has recorded 5 cases only.
READ ALSO: COVID-19: Western diplomats warn of disease explosion, poor handling by government
Lock Down and Curfew
In a move to combat the spread of the pandemic disease, President Muhammadu Buhari directed the cessation of all movements in Lagos and the FCT for an initial period of 14 days, which took effect from 11 pm on Monday, 30th March 2020.
The movement restriction, which was extended by another two weeks period, has been partially put on hold with some businesses commencing operations from May 4. On April 27th, 2020, Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari declared an overnight curfew from 8 pm to 6 am across the country, as part of new measures to contain the spread of the COVID-19. This comes along with the phased and gradual easing of lockdown measures in FCT, Lagos, and Ogun States, which took effect from Saturday, 2nd May 2020, at 9 am.
On Monday, 29th June 2020 the federal government extended the second phase of the eased lockdown by 4 weeks and approved interstate movement outside curfew hours with effect from July 1, 2020. Also, on Monday 27th July 2020, the federal government extended the second phase of eased lockdown by an additional one week.
On Thursday, 6th August 2020 the federal government through the secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 announced the extension of the second phase of eased lockdown by another four (4) weeks.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State announced the closed down of the Eti-Osa Isolation Centre, with effect from Friday, 31st July 2020. He also mentioned that the Agidingbi Isolation Centre would also be closed and the patients relocated to a large capacity centre.
Due to the increased number of covid-19 cases in Nigeria, the Nigerian government ordered the reopening of Isolation and treatment centres in the country on Thursday, 10th December 2020.
On 26th January 2021, the Federal Government announced the extension of the guidelines of phase 3 of the eased lockdown by one month following the rising cases of the coronavirus disease in the country and the expiration of phase 3 of the eased lockdown.
On 28th February 2021, the federal government confirmed that the first tranche of Covid-19 vaccines will arrive in Nigeria on Tuesday, March 2nd, 2021.
On Tuesday, 2nd March 2021, the National Primary health Care Development Agency announced the arrival of the expected COVX Astrazeneca/Oxford covid-19 vaccines.
On Saturday, 6th March 2021, President Muhammadu Buhari and his vice, Yemi Osinbajo received vaccination against the covid-19 as the State House in Abuja.
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Coronavirus
FG explains how the Covid-19 vaccines work and their composition
The NPHCDA Director said that Covid-19 vaccine candidates are of various categories based on their mechanism of action.
The Federal Government through the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) has explained the composition of the Covid-19 vaccines and how they work.
This is as some of them have been approved for emergency use by the World Health Organization (WHO) and some countries, while others are still at different phases of clinical trials for possible approval.
According to a report from the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), this insight was given by the Executive Director/Chief Executive of NPHCDA, Dr Faisal Shuaib, who said there were several COVID-19 vaccine candidates.
READ: African Union signs deal for 400 million Johnson and Johnson single shot vaccine
He said that Covid-19 vaccine candidates are of various categories based on their mechanism of action such as the inactivated or weakened virus vaccines.
He explained that the idea behind the formulation of an inactivated or weakened virus vaccine is to elicit an immune response without causing the disease itself. Shuaib also said there were protein-based vaccines, which used harmless fragments of proteins or protein shells that mimic the Covid-19 virus to safely generate an immune response.
He added that the viral vector vaccines used a virus that had been genetically engineered to produce coronavirus proteins to safely generate an immune response and not give rise to the disease.
Going further, Shuaib pointed out that the Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) and Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) vaccines employed a cutting-edge approach that used genetically engineered RNA or DNA to generate a protein that safely prompted an immune response.
READ: China publicly presents its COVID-19 vaccines, 2 doses to cost below $146
What you should know
- It can be recalled that on March 2, 2021, Nigeria received the first set of about 4 million doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, manufactured by the Serum Institute in India and shipped via the COVAX Facility, a partnership between CEPI, Gavi, UNICEF and WHO.
- A few days ago, the Executive Director of NPHCDA disclosed that a total of 8,491 Nigerians have reacted adversely to the AstraZeneca inoculation since the exercise began on March 15.
- He said that Nigeria recorded 52 cases of moderate to severe incidents of Adverse Effects Following Immunisation (AEFI), presented as fever, vomiting, diarrhoea headaches, dizziness and allergic reactions.
- About 1.09 million Nigerians have so far been administered the first dose of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.
