Femi Falana, a human rights attorney and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, has urged the Federal Government to check the COVID-19 status of travellers from China.
Falana in a statement on Sunday in Abuja urged the government not to postpone taking required steps until the nation’s healthcare system was straining.
He said, “It is public knowledge that there has been a coronavirus surge in China in the last few weeks. The Chinese authorities have been reporting about 5,000 cases a day. Some analysts have said that the crisis has been underreported by the Chinese Government.
“The development has compelled many countries to impose restrictions on passengers arriving from China. As usual, the FG has not adopted any measure to prevent the spread of the dangerous disease through travellers arriving in Nigeria from China.
“In view of the rickety health care delivery system in the country the FG should, as a matter of urgency, make it mandatory for passengers arriving Nigeria from China to produce a negative COVID-19 test taken not more than two days prior to departure.
“A stitch in time saves nine, as they say. The government should not wait until the nation’s healthcare is overwhelmed by the pandemic before taking the necessary scientific steps to prevent another upsurge of coronavirus infection”.
Morocco had barred all travellers from China as more than a dozen countries have brought in travel restrictions as concerns grow over its surge in Covid-19 cases.
In December 2022, Beijing abruptly began dismantling its “zero-Covid” containment policy of lockdowns and mass testing, three years after the coronavirus first emerged in the city of Wuhan.
As Covid-19 overwhelms Chinese hospitals and crematoriums, officials have insisted that the wave is “under control” despite acknowledging that the true scale of infections is “impossible” to track.
