The federal government has declared additional 132 persons wanted for violating the quarantine provisions of the COVID-19 guidelines.
Government had on Sunday declared 90 persons wanted for same offence.
Chairman Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) on COVID-19 and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr Boss Mustapha, disclosed this Thursday night in Abuja.
Out of the 132 passengers, 75 were males while 57 females and are all Nigerians, bearing Nigerian passports. They all arrived in Nigeria through the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja.
The SGF recalled that the PSC on COVID-19 on 1st May 2021 issued a travel advisory for passengers arriving in Nigeria from Brazil, India and Turkey.
He explained that these precautionary measures were a necessary step to mitigate the risk of importation of variants of concern and break the chain of transmission to the population.
According to him, under the new measures, passengers arriving from/or that have visited any of these three countries within 14 days prior to the visit to Nigeria, are required to follow mandatory arrival quarantine and testing protocols in designated facilities.
Mustapha said while most of the arriving passengers dutifully observed the guidelines, some (Nigerians and foreigners have violated them in contravention of the provisions of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Health Regulations Protection, 2021,”.
He added that the 132 violators have been declared persons of interest (POI) on account of posing a considerable danger to overall public health and for the violation of Nigeria COVID-19 travel protocol by evading the mandatory seven-day quarantine for persons arriving from restricted countries.
“Members of the public are by this notice advised that these persons of interest constitute an immediate health hazard to the society,” Mustapha said. “They must, therefore, transport themselves safely, to the nearest state public health departments within 48hrs of this notice for immediate evaluation and call the Port Health Services, Federal Ministry of Health on 08036134672 or 08032461990 for further directions.
“The PSC shall in addition, take further steps to sanction these violators. These steps include: Disabling their travel passports for a period not less than one year; Cancelation of visas/permits of foreigners that have abused Nigeria’s hospitality, and prosecution under the 2021 Health Protection Regulations.”
