Managing Director, Nigerian Center for Disease Control, Chikwe Ihekweazu PHOTO: Twitter
Nigerians expressed fear after the Presidential Working Group on COVID-19 showed Tuesday that some incoming air travelers presented a false COVID-19 certificate and that about 40% of passengers who arrived tested positive for the virus.
Some experts are concerned that the scenario resembles the yellow fever card scam that has been going on for years. They said the scenario could get worse unless the PTF and the Nigerian Disease Control Center (NCDC) build control sites to receive public information. laboratories for passengers traveling abroad.
The director general of the Nigerian Institute for Medical Research (NIMR), Yaba, Lagos, Professor Babatunde Salako, told The Guardian that if the stage is not well monitored, there may be “the appearance of a fake certificate similar to the yellow card saga. “”
It wished to allow government establishments to test travellers under a public-personal agreement so that regions without personal laboratories would not suffer.
“We want to review the travel policy and the COVID-19 test,” he suggested. But the NCDC acted to ease tension, assuring Nigerians that the agency, in collaboration with the COVID-19 PTF and other stakeholders, was working to save you the resurgence of coronavirus cases due to the resumption of flights abroad.
The center also denied accusations of fraudulent evidence for air travelers, while claiming that 5% of passengers arriving in Nigeria tested positive within 14 days of arrival.
NcDC CEO and CEO Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu downplayed reports that there were about 40% of cases despite new restrictions on foreign flights; however, it refused to comment on considerations on false COVID-19 verification certificates.
Ihekweazu, who is also an epidemiologist, told The Guardian: “First, no knowledge shows that 40% of people who have returned since the resumption of abroad have COVID-19. That’s just not true.
“PTF-COVID-19 has made repeated verification in Nigeria mandatory to reduce the threat of peaking in cases where we resume flights abroad. The foreign portal, which we have developed, is designed to allow us to track the number of readers in the country and ensure that the necessary checks and monitoring are carried out.
“It is very vital that all other people entering Nigeria adhere to existing measures so that we can all and prevent them from entering COVID-19 instances in Nigeria. “
The national coordinator, PTF-COVID-19, Dr. Sani Aliyu, held an interactive consultation with the Joint Committees of the Senate on Health and Aviation on Tuesday, which foreign travellers from some countries had presented a false Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). coVID-19 prestige to enter Nigeria.
Aliyu, who is also a former director general of the National AIDS Agency (NACA), complained that some passengers tested negative for COVID-19 PCR, but were then screened for the disease. He said the effects of the evidence were presented through the passengers. were unreliable.
The NCDC, on a yesterday’s day, said its attention had turned to a report published in a daily newspaper, not the Guardian, on September 14, 2020, with the headline: “Fraud affects NCDC COVID-19 evidence for air travelers. “‘
The Center noted: “This report is simply incorrect and is based on non-truth data. In addition, no attempt was made to touch the NCDC on this matter prior to the newspaper’s press release. This article is an unfortunate misrepresentation of the efforts of government departments and agencies to enable security in the context of a pandemic affecting all countries of the world.
“The resolution to make repeated testing mandatory in Nigeria is based on a knowledge review through NCDC and PTF-COVID-19. The aim is to strike the right balance between protecting Nigeria from more infections while supporting the resumption of foreign travel. Until August 2020, evacuation and emergency flights were legal in the country following an initial restriction on foreign flights.
According to the NCDC, of the number of other people who returned to Nigeria, 5% tested positive within 14 days of arrival, lamenting that many breached self-isolation rules upon return.
“Based on this knowledge and capacity in Nigeria, all travelers to Nigeria deserve to be evaluated after seven days of returning home. This deserves to allow early detection and reduce the threat of additional transmission of the disease,” he said. .
The NCDC stated that it had activated public fitness laboratories for COVID-19 in Nigeria since 14 September 2020 and that the laboratories were for public fitness purposes, offering loose testing to the public.
At TIME, foreign airlines rejected allegations of air travelers with fake COVID-19 check certificate in the country, according to them, followed COVID-19 protocols.
The manager of a station told The Guardian: “I can tell you that we (the airlines) are looking for certificates from government-approved centers only. So, if those documents are found to be defective or do not reflect the true fitness of travelers, how is it the airline’s fault?
“Unfortunately, governments don’t seem to agree with some of those protocols. Some of the test centres approved by the Nigerian government may be others of the appropriate ones in the UK, and vice versa. That’s why we’re asking for harmonized protocols so everyone is on the same page,” he said.
Nigerian National Association of Travel Agencies (NANTA) President Susan Akporiaye urged the aviation government to harmonize security protocols with doubts about certificates.
Akporiaye noted that some lers to Nigeria and the United Kingdom were still in squalor due to conflicting protocols. While Nigeria ordered that incoming passengers must have a recent COVID-19 verification certificate before boarding, the UK does not give preference to COVID -19 checks for reasons, but for medical wishes and symptoms of illness. Many healthy people are not certified and therefore cannot fly.
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