The federal government has suspended further evacuation of
Nigerians stranded abroad over the COVID-19 pandemic.
Geoffrey Onyeama, minister of foreign affairs, who announced
this during the presidential task force on COVID-19 briefing on Wednesday,
however, said the evacuation is expected to continue soon.
He said the evacuation was suspended to give room for new
measures that would require citizens returning from overseas to get tested and
self-isolate at home rather than in selected hotels.
“There is going to be a change in that protocol and that is
going to affect the timing of any further evacuation we are going to
undertake,” he said.
“Anybody that is going to be evacuated will first of all
undergo a test from the countries they are leaving from, at least five days
before travel and not later than nine days before.
“That will be a pre-condition for boarding the flights to
Nigeria. And if they are positive, they will not be able to board the flight.
“On arrival in Nigeria, Aliko Dangote and his other partners
will have in place these units where they will take samples from the passengers
coming in and they will retain their passports.
“The passengers will then be able to go home and not into
prescribed hotels to self-isolate. Results from those samples will then be
ready within a day or two; those who are positive will then be taking in for
isolation.
“The whole issue of quarantining in hotels will no longer be
necessary. This can also mean more people can also come back more frequently,
and it will be a lot easier than it has been up to now.
“What we have been asked to do is to cease or suspend all
evacuations for now until this new structure is put into place. We are very hopeful that maybe by next week,
we should be able to commence evacuation.”
He added that the federal government has also evacuated some
Nigerian girls that were trafficked to Lebanon.
“We are able to evacuate 69 Nigerians, 50 trafficked
Nigerian girls from Lebanon and 19 other Nigerians, and they all arrived safely
and are in quarantine,” he said, while thanking Lebanese community in Nigeria
who “funded the cost of flight and hotel accommodation for the trafficked
girls.”
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com