Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana, has alerted Nigeria’s Federal Government of a COVID-19 resurgence.
To this end, he urged the FG to make it mandatory for people arriving Nigeria from China to have negative COVID test results in order to prevent the deadly disease from resurfacing.
In a statement issued in Lagos, Falana foresees the consequences of failing to take preventive measures like other countries, particularly in light of China’s recent relaxation of restrictions.
He said that the “rickety” state of Nigeria’s healthcare delivery system makes it a matter of urgency to prevent another COVID outbreak.
“It is public knowledge that there has been a COVID-19 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 federal government 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 federal government should, as a matter of urgency, make it mandatory for passengers arriving in 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,” he said.
China has stated that it will discontinue its quarantine measures for inbound travelers as of January 8, causing other countries to impose travel restrictions on Chinese visitors.
According to reports, on December 28, approximately 50% of passengers on two flights arriving in Italy from China tested positive for the virus