The British Government has announced that Nigeria will be added to its red list for international travel to England, following the twenty-one recent cases of COVID-19 variant B.1.1.529, Omicron, linked to the country, from 4am on Monday, December six.
This information, which was published on the UK government’s website, means that Nigeria will be joining several Southern African Countries, which were put on the red list after the Omicron variant was first detected late last month.
It means that only UK citizens and residents will be able to enter the country from Nigeria, and they will have to pay to stay in a quarantine hotel for ten days.
Britain also said that from 4am on December six, tomorrow, a temporary travel ban will be introduced for non-UK and non-Irish citizens and residents, who’ve been in Nigeria in the previous ten days, meaning they will be denied entry into the UK.
UK’s health secretary, Sajid Javid, said tests must be taken a maximum of forty-eight hours before the departure time, to tackle the spread of the new Omicron variant and the rule applies to all travelers visiting the UK or returning from a holiday, regardless of vaccination status, and will come into force from 4am on Tuesday seventh December.
He said that Nigeria is second only to South Africa for cases linked to Omicron and that there are twenty-seven cases already in England and that’s growing.