Federal government says it will engage the government of the United Kingdom (UK) on the travel restrictions it imposed on Nigerian travellers to the country over the Omicron variant of the COVID-19.
In an interaction with the press yesterday, the spokesperson of the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Esther Sunsuwa, said the government will “respond appropriately to the restrictions.”
The UK had in a statement on Saturday added Nigeria to the travel red list, from 4am today following 21 cases of Omicron reported in England which were reportedly linked to travels from Nigeria.
The UK said these were temporary measures that had been introduced to prevent further Omicron cases from entering the country and would be examined at the three-week review point on 20th December.
Sunsuwa said the ministry will contact the UK authorities first over the reported restrictions and “their response will determine what the ministry will do next.”
“From 4am on Monday, 6th December, UK and Irish citizens and residents arriving from Nigeria must isolate in a government-approved managed quarantine facility for 10 days, and receive two negative PCR tests, as further precautionary action is taken against the Omicron variant,” the UK statement said.
It said that currently, the majority of cases in the UK had clear links to overseas travels from South Africa and Nigeria, and over the past week 21 reported Omicron cases in England originating from Nigeria.
