Nigeria bans entry for travelers from 13 countries as it announces five new cases of coronavirus

Nigeria is restricting entry into the country for travelers from 13 countries including the US and UK, as it announced five new cases Wednesday.

The restriction will apply to travelers from countries with more than 1,000 cases. They include China, Italy, Iran, South Korea, Spain, Japan, France, Germany, the United States, Norway, UK, Netherlands and Switzerland, the country’s National Centre for Disease Control said on its Twitter account.

“The Federal Government of Nigeria has also suspended the issuance of visa on arrival to travelers from these countries. All travelers returning from these countries prior to the restriction will be in supervised self-isolation, monitored by the NCDC and Port Health Services,” – the tweet read.

The restriction will take effect starting on March 20 and will be in place until further notice.

Health officials also announced an additional five cases of the virus in the country, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to eight. One of them is a recovered patient who came in contact with the index case to

Nigeria, an Italian man on a business trip to the country, authorities said.

In an earlier statement on Tuesday, the NCDC said a 30-year-old woman, who came into the country after a short visit to the UK tested positive to coronavirus after she developed symptoms including coughing and a fever on her return.

She had self-isolated in her home when she arrived in the country on March 13 and called the agency when she developed symptoms, the NCDC said, adding that it had begun tracing those who had come in contact with her.

“We expect the number to be small because of her sensible decision to go into self-isolation from the time of her arrival,” the statement read.
Africa shutting its doors

Nigeria joins other African countries that are shutting their airports and land borders to keep out people from countries that have a high number of coronavirus cases.
Tunisia on Monday suspended all international flights and closed the country’s land borders in an attempt to contain the outbreak. It also banned gathering in markets and other places and introduced a nighttime curfew from 6 p.m to 6 a.m from Wednesday.

Sudan also sealed off all sea ports, land crossings and airports, a spokesman for Sudan’s Transitional Sovereign Council, Mohamed Al-Faki Suleiman, said in a press statement.

Hundreds of international flights have been canceled, schools have closed and travelers from coronavirus-hit countries have been restricted or, in some cases, banned from visiting some countries in Africa.

Egypt, with the highest number of coronavirus cases in Africa, announced it was suspending flights from all its airports starting Thursday to stop the spread of the virus, Ahram Online reported.

Some countries such as Djibouti are yet to record a single case, but it has suspended all international flights to the country, the US Embassy in Djibouti said in a statement.

There is widespread support on the continent for governments to impose travel bans. One Twitter user noted that Western countries would have acted swiftly to place travel sanctions on travelers if the outbreak originated in Africa.

“I hope African countries close up their borders to all these majorly affected countries because we all know the west would ban travel had Coronavirus started in Africa,” they said.
Advice against restrictions

The travel bans and restrictions goes against the advice of the WHO, which has urged countries to not apply blind travel restrictions in a way that would impact trade and travel.
WHO Africa’s Dr. Mary Stephen told CNN that many African countries, which were initially screening passengers from countries with outbreaks and also placing travelers from virus-hit countries on quarantine, may now be making travel ban decisions based on panic.

“The outbreak is evolving. It used to be China and now it is Italy and other countries are following after it. So we must be careful because we have seen an increasing number of countries imposing travel restrictions, and that means their perception of risks have changed. But have they done a risk assessment to their countries or are they just implementing those measures based on their perception?” she said.

Stephen, who is with the organization’s emergencies team, said African countries need to enhance their capacities to detect early, isolate and track all patients’ contacts and effectively manage the sick to curb the spread of coronavirus.