Nigeria To Repeat COVID-19 Test For Inbound Travellers

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), has revealed that all travelers will undergo repeated Covid-19 tests upon arrival to Nigeria.

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The director-general of the agency, Ifedayo Adetifa, made this known in a statement titled, ‘Update in the use of Nigerian International Travel Portal’ on Saturday.

According to the DG, the decision became necessary after Nigeria recorded over 18,000 positive cases of the COVID-19 from inbound travellers.

“The decision to make repeat tests mandatory in Nigeria was based on the review of COVID-19 test positivity data among returnees to Nigeria during the first and subsequent waves of the pandemic,” Adetifa stated.

Adetifa stressed that the mandatory testing will ensure a balance between the centre’s mandate to protect the health of Nigerians from more infections and supporting the restart of the economy.

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“As of January 16th, 2022, over 18,000 cases of COVID-19 have been recorded from inbound travellers to Nigeria. Therefore, the associated risk of disease transmission is not trivial.

“The Nigeria international travel portal was launched by the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19 formerly Presidential Task Force, with support from the Coalition Against COVID-19.

“Since the resumption of international flights post-COVID-19 lockdown in Nigeria on September 5th, 2020, the portal remains an effective means of preventing the importation of COVID-19 via air travel which reduces the risk of further spread of the virus and its variants in the country.”

The current updates from NCDC on Friday shows that Nigeria has confirmed 251,930 infections and 225,906 recoveries with 3,124 deaths in 36 states including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), since the outbreak of the disease in 2020.

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