COVID-19: Travel Restrictions Has No Health Benefits – NCDC Boss Urges Nigerians To Take Booster Dose

The Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr Ifedayo Adetifa has said implementation of travel restrictions to prevent the Omicron variant of COVID-19 has no health benefit to the public.

According to him, the Nigerian population is significantly protected from a combination of natural infection and vaccination.

Naija News reports that Adetifa took to micro-blogging platform, Twitter to revealed on Sunday that the restrictions impacted negatively on individuals and businesses in the country.

His disclosure follows a meeting of the NCDC COVID-19 National Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) held on Saturday, where it was resolved that the EOC would continue to review the ongoing COVID-19 situation “over the coming week.”

Meanwhile, Naija News earlier reported
more countries of the world have commenced imposition of restrictions on travellers from China.

It was gathered that there has been a surge again in Covid-19 incidences in China following which Italy imposed travel restrictions on travellers arriving from China after about 50% of passengers on two flights arriving in Milan from China on December 28, 2022, reportedly tested positive for COVID-19.

It was however learnt that more countries like the United Kingdom, France, and Spain have joined the league of countries requesting a negative COVID-19 test result from travellers arriving from China.

Adetifa in the tweets said  “Recent experience in Nigeria with the arrival of omicron showed travel restrictions did not have any public health benefits but were disruptive for persons and businesses. COVID-19 has and continues to follow a different course (epidemiology in Nigeria and most of Africa).

“At the next review and if deemed necessary, a range of actions, not limited to enhanced surveillance of travellers at airports, may be implemented.

“We advise Nigerians to make use of every opportunity the Federal Government has provided via the @NphcdaNG to get vaccinated i.e., receive your primary vaccination which can be two or a single vaccine dose. If you have received two vaccine doses already, go get your booster.

“If you have received one booster dose already, please go get your second booster dose. If you belong in any of the high-risk categories (old age, etc), kindly ensure you adhere to recommended public health safety measures – mask use, hand hygiene and avoiding crowded spaces.”