COVID-19: FG considering imposing travel restrictions on India, Brazil, Turkey

The Federal Government has said it would issue travel advisory in the next two days on inbound flights from India, Brazil and Turkey following escalation of new variants of the COVID-19 virus in the countries.

Head of Technical Secretariat of the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) on COVID-19, Dr Mukhtar Muhammad, who disclosed this on Monday during a briefing of the Committee in Abuja, expressed concerns over the situation in India, which is a popular destination for Nigerian medical tourists.

He charged Nigerians to keep observing all the regulations and instructions already provided to keep safe from the infection of COVID-19.

He equally warned that the third wave of the pandemic, going by how it has been sweeping through other parts of the world, is close to Nigeria.

“We sympathise with the people of these countries because it is really a very trying time particularly for India, that is recording over 300,000 cases a day and over 2000 deaths.

“It is not easy. India is a prime destination for medical tourism for Nigeria. We know that many Nigerians like to travel to go to India, but now we see the situation that the country has found itself in.

“While we urge Nigerians to limit all travellers to only essential travel, particularly to these affected countries.

“We actually empathise with those countries and what is happening in those climes. However, on our part, we are looking seriously into this issue. We are looking at other considerations that we need to provide.

“We will be providing some travel advice in the next 48, 72 hours with particular reference to both Nigerians and those coming into the country to help advise us,” he said.