Omicron: UK To Lift Travel Bans On Nigeria?

ENGLAND – Boris Johnson, the UK Prime Minister, has promised to re-examine the travel ban policy placed on Nigeria as a result of positive cases of the new Omicron variant linked to the country.

According to Daily Mail, the UK Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps,
has convinced the government that the red list should be replaced with testing for the fully vaccinated.

The move is expected to be approved this week.

Besides, observers of the scene claimed that placing Nigeria on the red list was unfair and ineffective.

It would be recalled that the South Africa National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) on November 25, 2021 announced the detection of 22 positive cases of the new Omicron variant.

Following the discovery, a number of countries banned travel from countries in southern Africa.

The UK placed a temporary ban on air travel from Nigeria and six southern African countries.

They include South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, and Zimbabwe – with immediate effect to prevent importation of the variant into the UK.

In response to the travel ban, the
Federal government of Nigeria said it will restrict airlines coming from Canada, the UK, and Saudi Arabia from Tuesday.

According to the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, who disclosed this last Sunday, said it was to reciprocate the travel ban placed on Nigeria over the new COVID-19 variant, Omicron.

Sirika noted that the Buhari administration will also place the UK, Canada, and Saudi Arabia on a red list over the outbreak and spread of the Omicron variant.

The United Kingdom will scrap the travel red list this week.

At Wednesday’s COVID briefing,