Senate To Buhari: Ban Travel From China, Italy, Iran, Others

Following Nigeria’s confirmation of a third Coronavirus (COVID-19) case on Monday, the Senate has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to impose travel restriction on countries with high number of confirmed cases.

Nigeria’s third COVID-19 case was confirmed in a female citizen who had just returned from the United Kingdom on March 13.

The Lagos State Ministry of Health which announced the development on Tuesday, said the new case was “independent of the index case,” who was an Italian man who flew into the country from Milan, Italy, on February 25.

Meanwhile, at a plenary session on Tuesday, the Senate made the request to President Buhari after adopting a point of order raised by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Health, Ibrahim Oloriegbe.

Oloridgbe added that the federal government should restrict citizens from travelling to countries with high number of COVID-19 cases.

“If it is possible, people should not travel to countries with high risk of the cases especially in Europe where many countries are affected, unless such trips are very important.

“Government should also consider disallowing non-Nigerians from countries of high risk from entering the country. Government should also increase capacity about checking airports,” he said.

He further urged the government to step up its testing capacity as there were only five centers where COVID-19 test could be carried out.

Responding, Senate President Ahmad Lawan agreed with the point that President Buhari should ban travel from high risk countries.

Lawan added that emphasis should be placed on the isolation and testing centres.

“We are very lucky and fortunate, but we shouldn’t push our luck too far. We should be very observant of all those regulations the technical experts give us.

“There is need for federal government to do a little more, especially in the area of testing centres. The entire north and south-east have no testing centres and it shouldn’t be so.

“Also, for the isolation centres the state governments are building, the ministry of health should come out with a standard which will be replicated in all the states.

“So we need to through our committees, ensure we work with the ministry of health to work with the states to ensure the isolation centres are standardized,” said the Senate President.