ABUJA (CU)_Over the recent weeks, concerns have arisen among the global community regarding the newly discovered Omicron variant of COVID-19. Accordingly, a couple of weeks ago, the United Kingdom added several African nations to its red list of countries and territories, meaning any individual who has visited any of them in the 10 days before you arriving in England, they will only be allowed to enter the European nation if they are a British or Irish National, or have residence rights in the UK.
However, on Monday (6 Dec), Nigeria was also added to the list by the government of United Kingdom, following Canada, which also extended its travel ban to the West African nation a couple of days after the Omicron strain was detected in two people who had recently travelled to the country. The new regulations attracted backlash from the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), who claimed that they were unfair, given the significantly lower number of cases of the new variant in the country.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the NGF chairman and Governor of the Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, described the decisions of London and Ottawa as “precipitate, unfair and discriminatory”, and requested the World Health Organisation (WHO) to intervene.
“The NGF therefore urges the WHO to intervene in this matter by setting uniform standards that are acceptable to all for banning countries across the globe,” the statement read. “Omicron still remains relatively unknown globally as it is not yet clear whether it is more transmissible from person to person compared to other variants including Delta.”
It went on to point out that several other countries which have reported higher cases of Omicron have are not subject to the new restrictions.
“Confirmed Omicron cases as at December 3rd, across some countries are: Nigeria (3); Australia (7); Brazil (3); Germany (9) Israel (4); Italy (9) and Netherlands (16). There is also no evidence that harsh, blanket travel bans will protect the countries that impose them,” Fayemi noted. “It is ironical that this ban comes at a time when the DG of the WHO, Tedros Ghebreyesus, has advised that ‘rational proportional risk reduction measures’ be taken by countries such as screening passengers prior to departure and/or upon arrival in a country, or enforcing a quarantine period.”
Accordingly, he called on countries to be guided by “science and fairness” when setting the criteria for their red lists.
