At the plenary session, Oloriegbe Yahaya, Chairman Senate Committee on Health who represents Kwara Central Senatorial District made the call after Nigeria recorded its third case of the coronavirus infection.
“If it is possible, people should not travel to countries with a high risk of the cases especially in Europe where many countries are affected, unless such trips are very important,” Yahaya said.
“Government should also consider disallowing non-Nigerians from countries of high risk from entering the country. The Government should also increase capacity about checking airports.”
Senator Oloriegbe Yahaya cites Order 43 and informs the Senate on the current situation of Covid-19 outbreak in the world and the urgent need to be prepared for this epidemic.
— The Nigerian Senate (@NGRSenate) March 17, 2020
Several African countries have shut their airports and land borders to keep out people from countries with a high number of coronavirus cases, but the Federal Government had said it was not considering a travel ban.
Egypt which currently has the highest number of coronavirus cases in Africa announced it was suspending flights from all its airports starting Thursday to stop the spread of the virus.
Ethiopia, Senegal and Kenya have also announced school closures and bans on public assemblies while South Africa joined Uganda to impose travel restrictions on 16 countries with high cases of coronavirus, including the US and the UK.
“There is at the moment no testing centre in the South East and the entire North has no testing Centre. We as an Assembly are prepared to support the federal government if they request for money to set up testing in the South East and in the North.”- SP, @DrAhmadLawan
— The Nigerian Senate (@NGRSenate) March 17, 2020
He said Nigeria currently has only five centres where testing can be done, and that “the government has to step up the testing capacity, and provide support for state governments.”
“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.
Amos Abba is a journalist with the International Center for Investigative Reporting, ICIR, who believes that courageous investigative reporting is the key to social justice and accountability in the society.