Senate asks FG to implement travel ban from countries with high risk of coronavirus

The Nigerian Senate has asked the Federal government to consider banning non-Nigerian travelers from countries with high risk of coronavirus.

The senators called for the ban on Tuesday morning during plenary, few hours after the Federal government announced the 3rd confirmed case of Coronavirus in Nigeria.

Chairman of the senate’s health committee Senator Ibrahim Oloriegbe said that in addition to the ban, the Federal government should also restrict travels to worst-hit countries to curb the spread of the virus.

“If it is possible, people should not travel to countries with high risk of the cases especially in Europe where many countries are affected, unless such trips are very important. Government should also consider disallowing non-Nigerians from countries of high risk from entering the country. Government should also increase capacity about checking airports” he said on the floor of the senate this moirning

Speaking further, Oloriegbe called for the creation of more Isolation and testing centers as Nigeria has just five centers at the moment.

Senate President Ahmad Lawan while making his contribution, also called for the creation of more testing centers for the virus in the South East and the North.

“We are very lucky and fortunate, but we shouldn’t push our luck too far. We should be very observant of all those regulations the technical experts give us. There is need for federal government to do a little more, especially in the area of testing centres. The entire north and south-east have no testing centres and it shouldn’t be so. Also, for the isolation centres the state governments are building, the ministry of health should come out with a standard which will be replicated in all the states. So we need to through our committees, ensure we work with the ministry of health to work with the states to ensure the isolation centres are standardised.” he said