Nigeria News
FG May Halt Flights From UK, Others Over New COVID-19 Strain
The Federal Government is contemplating imposing a travel ban on flights from the United Kingdom and certain parts of the world over the new strain of COVID-19 manifesting in the UK.
Naija News reports that countries like Spain, India, Hong Kong, etc have suspended flights to and from the UK.
France also shut its border with the UK for 48 hours.
Other countries to impose a ban on UK arrivals include Belgium, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Russia, and Switzerland.
Some of the bans are already in force while others are to begin on Tuesday.
Speaking at a special forum of NAN on Monday, Nigeria’s Information Minister, Lai Mohammed, said while the government knows the negative economic impact of another lockdown, it would not rule out restriction on movement to and from certain parts of the world.
He said: “We are more concerned about the new strain of COVID-19 which is manifesting itself in the UK; that is the mutated strain.
“It is difficult to detect, it spreads faster and people have been known to die of it within a very short period of its detection.
“This is a major concern to us as a country. While I do not want to pre-empt the PTF because we are meeting this afternoon, it is going to be top on the agenda of our discussions. I will not be surprised if that will be the recommendation of the committee which is meeting later today.
“This season, many students are coming from the UK in particular, to come and join their families in Nigeria. Besides, many of our people, because of the traditional link we have with UK, may want to go there for business or family reunion.
“It is a very testy time and it might be another dangerous period to transmit this new variant of COVID-19.”
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