The Federal Government of Nigeria has announced that fully vaccinated inbound air passengers would no longer be required to take pre-departure PCR COVID-19 tests.
This is coming days after the World Health Organization special envoy on COVID-19, Ayodade Alakija, demanded probe into the activities of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and the Ministry of Health over the high cost of PCR tests for inbound passengers into Nigeria.
The Presidential Steering Committee headed by the Chairman , Boss Mustapha, disclosed the suspension, saying “for fully vaccinated passengers, a sample will be taken at the airport for rapid antigen test by the NCDC within the arrival hall of the airport.”
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The PSC noted that the new directive will take effect on April 4.
“Passengers who are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated shall take a COVID-19 PCR test 48 hours before departure, or do a day 2 and day 7 test on arrival. Such passengers will be expected to pay for their PCR tests through the travel platform.”
The new directive is not only restricted to adults as Mustapha explained that it also applies to children aged between 10 and 18.
“Rules that apply to fully vaccinated adults also apply to children aged 10 to 18 years; they will not be required to have pre-arrival PCR tests but will have a sample taken at the arrival hall but not charged.
“All passengers travelling out of Nigeria are encouraged to be fully vaccinated and to fully comply with COVID-19 protocol and requirements in their country of destination,” he said.
As of today (March 22), the global covid-19 cases according to Worldometer stands at 472,786,080, while Nigeria has a total of 255,190 confirmed cases.