The Nigerian government has said that 50 percent of the country’s positive COVID-19 arrivals have come from the United Kingdom.
Health Minister Dr Osagie Ehanire said this while criticizing the UK government for red-listing Nigeria and other African countries over Omicron COVID-19 variant fears.
Ehanire described the ban as a hasty decision in an interview on Channels Television.
He said: “We regularly have travelers from the UK who are positive for COVID-19. In fact, in the past two weeks, positive COVID-19 arrivals were 50 percent from the UK.
“A genetic sequencing is being carried out; we will have the results soon. We don’t know how many of them are Omicron variants. But if each country must include other countries on a ban list because there are 21 cases in that country, very soon, it will have a large number of countries on its red list.
The Health Minister stated that there are other ways to address this variant of COVID-19 in addition to banning flights from African countries.
“I think there are other ways to do it, and in Nigeria we don’t find the ban on flights and the movement of people particularly helpful,” Ehanire said.
50 Percent of Positive COVID-19 Cases in UK Nigeria – FG