Over 2,000 Nigerians and foreigners have been declined by the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) on COVID-19 from travelling abroad and into the country for one year, for avoiding the Coronavirus Polymerase Chain Reaction test at the country’s international airports.
This development was disclosed by the National Incident Manager of the Presidential Steering Committee, Mukhtar Muhammad, at its briefing on Monday, in Abuja.
He stated that the names of over 2,000 citizens’ and foreigners’ had been pasted at all the major federal medical facilities where medical experts were assigned to give care to Nigerians and foreigners that had travelled into the country during the COVID-19 third wave.
Also, Muhammad revealed that the government had persisted that passengers, who arrived into the country, especially from high-risk countries, must be quarantined in a government-provided facility, and that the passports of those who failed to comply with the protocol had been suspended for one year.
“We have included the provision of quarantine for passengers, who arrived from high-risk countries, and people who evaded these protocols have been penalised by publishing their names, as well as suspending their passports for one year.
“Let me assure you that so far we have published the list of over 2,000 people who evaded quarantine in our health facilities. And we have gone ahead to ensure that their passports are suspended, so, for every action there are consequences,” he said.