The federal government has barred all public officials from travelling abroad as part of measures to curb coronavirus.
Boss Mustapha, secretary to the government of the federation, announced the ban after a meeting held by the presidential task force on coronavirus in Abuja on Tuesday.
Mustapha also advised all Nigerians to cancel all travels abroad, especially to all high-risk countries.
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“Such high-risk countries are China, Iran, South Korea, Germany, Italy, USA, UK, Switzerland, Norway, Netherlands, Spain, France and Japan,” he said.
He urged anyone returning from any country to strictly self-isolate for 14 days in their homes.
“The Nigeria Center for Disease Control has released guidelines for self-isolation, we will ensure that those guidelines are widely publicised,” Mustapha said.
He further stated that people returning from countries with high community transmission rate especially countries that have recorded 1000 cumulative cases and above, will be actively followed up for 14 days by the health authorities.
“We want to put on notice that the Nigerian government supports the measures taken by the government of other countries particularly high burden countries who have urged their residents to stay home and avoid nonessential travels particularly and inclusive to Nigeria.
“We want to urge the Nigerian people to continue to maintain a high level of sanitation and hygiene and respiratory etiquette which has been repeatedly advised. Maintaining social distance and avoiding crowded areas should begin to become our lifestyle.
“We will continue to look at emerging scenarios and on a continuous basis, you will receive further briefings. But for now, we believe strongly that this particular pandemic is the most important public health emergency of our generation and we must treat it with every seriousness that it deserves,” he said.
