FG imposes travel restrictions on 100 COVID-19 protocols’ violators

The Federal Government has imposed travel restrictions on 100 passengers for flouting COVID-19 directives.

Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 announced this through its Twitter handle on Tuesday.

This came as the country recorded a total of 643 new coronavirus cases on Monday, signifying a slight increase of 27 per cent over the past 24 hours.

The PTF also released the passport details of the defaulters, stating that they have been restricted from travelling for six months.

“Presidential Task Force sanctions 100 passports in Second Batch of those who failed to comply with the mandatory Day 7 post-arrival COVID-19 Test. Penalty: six-month travel restriction from February 5 to July 30, 2021,” it tweeted.

In the list containing the passport number of the defaulters, it added, “The Federal Government is placing travel restrictions on the following passports due to non-compliance with the mandatory Day and post-arrival COVID-19 test.”

The Federal Government had in January placed travel restrictions on 100  travellers who failed to undergo the compulsory COVID-19 test after returning into the country.

It said the restrictions started from January 1, 2021, and would last till June 30, 2021.

The PTF said the defaulting passengers have been notified and will be prevented from travelling out of the country during the period.

Meanwhile, out of the 643 new COVID-19 infections confirmed across 18 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in the latest update by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Oyo recorded the highest number of fresh cases with 88 positive samples.

Next on the list was Lagos, the epicentre of the pandemic in Nigeria, which followed closely with 86 new infections,  and Rivers with 55 positive samples.

A breakdown of other states with confirmed cases is as follows: Edo (54), Akwa Ibom (53), Adamawa (52), Plateau (45), Kaduna (41), FCT (34), Kwara (27), Benue (20), Kano (19), Delta (18), Nasarawa (16), Niger (15), Bayelsa (11), Borno (5), Bauchi (2), and Sokoto (2).

A total of 8,473 infections have been recorded in the past seven days, while the country’s tally of confirmed cases  across all the states and the FCT, has now exceeded 140,000.

Six new deaths were confirmed on Monday, bringing the total number of fatalities to 1,673.

According to the NCDC, 1,110 patients were confirmed to have been discharged on Monday, which included 744 community recoveries in Lagos state, 100 in Rivers, 78 in Plateau, 72 in Kaduna, and two in Benue “managed in line with guidelines”.

A total of 114,635 patients have now been discharged across the country, while 24,083 are currently active cases.