18th March, 2020
By Michael Adeshina
The Federal Government on Wednesday ramped up its precautionary measures against coronavirus by issuing a travel ban on 13 countries.
The government also suspended the visas issued to nationals of those countries and the visa on arrival policy.
The blacklisted countries are the United States of America, the United Kingdom, China, Japan, Iran, Switzerland, Norway, Netherland, France, South Korea, Germany, Italy, and Spain.
On Tuesday, the Presidential Task Force on Coronavirus announced a travel ban on officials from going to those countries.
Secretary to the Government of the Federation Boss Mustapha announced the extended ban at a media briefing on Wednesday.
“These are all countries with over 1,000 cases of Coronavirus domestically,” he said.
“The Federal Government is temporarily suspending all visas issued to nationals from these countries. Nigerians arriving from these countries will be subjected to supervised isolation for 14 days.
“The Federal Government of Nigeria is also advising all Nigerians to avoid travel to these countries.
“These restrictions will come into effect from Fri 20 March 2020 for 4 weeks subject to review,” Mustapha said.