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From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja, Okey Sampson, Umuahia and Sunday Ani
The Federal Government has said it would not only name and shame violators of the COVID-19 Health Protection Regulations (2021), it would prosecute and jail offenders.
Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 pandemic and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, made the disclosure at yesterday’s briefing.
“We have to get tough on these things because is a matter of public health and the dangers involved…We call on Nigerians and the media to join us in this fight so that we have a paradigm shift, an attitudinal change among our people to do the right thing.”
Aside from additional 100 passports that were to be suspended for the next six months or a longer time, he said offenders would face mobile court and sent to jail.
On the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) banning Gulf carrier Emirates with a 72-hour flight suspension, Mustapha said those presenting fake results were making airlines to doubt the testing process being carried out in the country.
Speaking in the same vein, National Incident Manager of the PTF, Dr Mukhtar Muhammad, warned against violating international travel COVID-19 protocols, saying violators stand the risk of imprisonment.
According to him, besides the fact that violating the travel protocols is a punishable crime in Nigeria, it is also a threat to the family and members of the communities where offenders belong.
He, however, assured that the PTF would continue to monitor the activities of international airlines and laboratories, as well as continue to take actions on travel advisories in order to ensure that the nation is secured against the pandemic.
“As you may all be aware, the PTF through NCAA had sanctioned and suspended an airline for its failure to comply with testing requirements and travel policies.
“While we explore infrastructure for setting up Rapid Antigen Test (RDT), the standard shall continue to be the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test performed 96 hours from the date of departure and a second PCR test on the 7th day after arrival.
“In the meantime, the PTF will continue to monitor compliance by all international airlines and approved laboratories and take necessary action on travel advisories for national interest and greater public safety.
“Last week we received report of some passengers, who haven violated the entry protocol, were reported to have jumped quarantine. The PTF is taking the necessary steps to ensure timely prosecution of these passengers.
“For the benefit of the public, let me reiterate the protocol for passengers arriving without PCR or those who obtained a fake PCR results. These passengers will be tested on arrival immediately and taken to a mandatory seven-day quarantine at designated hotels, at the expiry of which their will have a second COVID-19 test using PCR.
“The passengers will be responsible for all their hotel and laboratory bills as well as be liable to prosecution at the COVID-19 tribunal. Jumping Quarantine is a grave offence, which is punishable by imprisonment and PTF will not shirk from prosecuting any violators.
“Nigerians must try to comply to the provisions of our entry protocol, because it is in your own best interest. Remember that if you obtain a fake PCR result and conspire and connived your way through the airport, you will be at a very high risk of taking COVID-19 infection to home to infect your loved ones and the people in your community,” he warned.
•Nigeria records 13 UK COVID-19 variant
Meanwhile, Nigeria has recorded 13 cases of the United Kingdom (UK) variant, B117.
“Six out of these numbers were detected in the last one week and they all came out of samples collected between November and January,” Mustapha said.
As at February 7, the National snap shot for COVID-19 stood at 139,748 cases; active cases, 24,556 (17 per cent); discharged, 113,525 (81.2 per cent); deaths, 1,667 (1.2 per cent) and the total tests being 1,398,630.
“Testing is still being aggressively pursued as a viable strategy and the PTF shall continue to appeal to not just the citizens to get tested but call on sub-national entities to ensure that capacity of the laboratories that have been established within their jurisdictions be fully maximized. This will help reduce the burden on the National Reference Laboratory and the attendant lengthy turnaround time for test results,” Mustapha said.
He said the shortage of oxygen for case management was gradually being overcome with private sector support.
•FG to get 42m vaccine doses from AU
The government said it would soon receive 42 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccines out of the 300 million doses meant for the continent, saying this would cover an estimated 45 per cent of the population.
Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, said the nation subscribed to two multilateral vaccine access platforms; the first being the Covax facility that would supply members, including Nigeria, vaccines free of charge, to cover 20 per cent of the population. He added that the number of vaccines being expected has moved from the initial 100,000 doses to 16 million.
“If all the projected vaccines are supplied, we estimate we should have covered over 45 percent of the population,” Ehanire said.
•NAFDAC evaluating vaccines from Russia, India
The minister said in addition to the proposed sources, Nigeria has had bilateral negotiations with Gamaleya of Russia over their Sputnik V vaccine. The minister said the Russian vaccine has an efficacy of 91 per cent.
“We are also in talks with the High Commissioner of India over the Covax vaccine of Barhat Institute. Both vaccines dossiers are under evaluation with NAFDAC.”
•BUA purchases 1m doses of AstraZeneca vaccines
Meanwhile, BUA has paid for one million doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines for Nigeria through the AFREXIM vaccine programme in partnership with CACOVID.
These doses of the vaccine which should be delivered by next week would be the first delivery of vaccines to Nigeria since the COVID-19 vaccines became available. According to BUA, the vaccines would be distributed free to Nigerians – at no cost.
Founder of BUA, Abdul Samad Rabiu thanked the President of Afrexim Bank, Dr. Benedict Oramah for making the purchase possible and the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Godwin Emefiele, for coordinating the process through the CACOVID private sector partnership,” Rabiu said.
•Edo records 115 new cases, 34 deaths
Edo State has recorded 115 new cases and 56 recoveries in the last 72 hours as deaths from the second wave of the pandemic reach 34.
COVID-19 Incident Manager, Dr. Andrew Obi, disclosed this during a virtual meeting of COVID-19 Taskforce, chaired by the Governor Godwin Obaseki.
“We also recorded 56 recoveries within the timeframe, with 702 active cases who are being treated at various treatment and isolation centres in the state,” he said.
•Lagos Assembly moves to regulate vaccine administration
The Lagos State House of Assembly, yesterday, condemned what it called unwholesome and illegal sale of the supposed drugs for COVID-19 treatment.
Consequently, the House has set in motion a plan to regulate the administration of vaccines for COVID-19 by private and public hospitals in the state.
Following the plan, the lawmakers have called for the amendment of the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic Bill to properly regulate the exercise.
Chairman, House Committee on Health, Hakeem Sokunle, who moved the motion said since there were different vaccines for the virus, it would be proper to ascertain their genuineness before usage.
In his resolution, Speaker Mudashiru Obasa, agreed with the Committee Chairman on Health that there was the need to regulate vaccines by private and public hospitals.
He urged the committee chairman to discuss the issue with the Attorney-General of the state.
•Abia shuts hotels, bans crusades, night clubs
Abia Government has shut down five hotels in Aba North Local Government Area for contravening COVID-19 protocols.
The committee on COVID-19 led by Chief Nkoro sealed the hotels due to what it described as public negligence and poor compliance to COVID-19 protocols as directed by the government.
The committee warned that the people who failed to comply with government’s directives would be arrested and prosecuted at the mobile court.
The government has also banned all night clubs and cultural activities in the state.
A statement by the chairman of the state COVID-19 committee and Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Chris Ezem, cautioned eateries and hoteliers saying if they contravene the COVID-19 protocols they would pay N100, 000 fine.
•Kano arrests 200 violators
At least, 200 people have been arrested, fined or incarcerated for violation as the joint team of security agencies and COVID-19 marshals continue to sensitise and enforce safety protocols in Kano State.
Commissioner for Information, Malam Muhammad Garba, in a statement, said 102 violators were fined N5, 000 each while 25 others have been remanded in prison by mobile courts set up to deal with non-compliance to safety protocols which had been identified as a huge challenge to curbing the spread of the virus.
He said the enforcement measure became necessary to preserve public safety and ensure full compliance with the Coronavirus prevention protocols, particularly the use of a face mask.
Abuja and over N30,000 in Lagos. We are contesting it and the simply reasons the airlines doing this is because of our attitude. They are beginning to doubt the authenticity of our test results because some few Nigerians have decided to be very very deceptive and criminal. Though we don’t have the monopoly of forging, even there they forged documents but why should we do it to ourselves to the extent that right now airlines are now determining for us by introducing a new layer of test. By the time you add up the cost of the additional money we are going to expend on traveling and coming back, it’s over N150,000. Why should that happen? But you see? We are the ones creating that situation.
“So, I will appeal to the media in particular, to be very strong in voicing your resentment of anybody that indulges on those kinds of attitude of bridging of protocols, rules and regulations, indulging in the facilitation of COVID-19 fake results.”
Also speaking in the same vain, National Incident Manager of the PTF, Dr Mukhtar Muhammad, warned against violating international travel COVID-19 protocols, saying violators stand the risk of imprisonment.
He stressed that the PTF would not fail to prosecute violators.
According to him, besides the fact that violating the travel protocols is a punishable crime in Nigeria, it is also a threat to the family and members of the communities where offenders belong.
He, however, assured that the PTF would continue to monitor the activities of international airlines and laboratories, as well as continue to take actions on travel advisories in order to ensure that the nation is secured against the pandemic.
“As you may all be aware, the PTF through NCAA had sanctioned and suspended an airline for its failure to comply with testing requirements and travel policies.
“While we explore infrastructure for setting up Rapid Antigen Test (RDT), the standard shall continue to be the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test performed 96 hours from the date of departure and a second PCR test on the 7th day after arrival.
“In the meantime, the PTF will continue to monitor compliance by all international airlines and approved laboratories and take necessary action on travel advisories for national interest and greater public safety.
“Last week we received report of some passengers who having violated the entry protocol were reported to have jumped quarantine. The PTF is taking the necessary steps to ensure timely prosecution of these passengers.
“For the benefit of the public, let me reiterate the protocol for passengers arriving without PCR or those who obtained a fake PCR results. These passengers will be tested on arrival immediately taken to a mandatory 7-day quarantine at designated hotels; at the expiry of which will have a second COVID-19 test using PCR.
“The Passengers will be responsible for all their hotel and laboratory bills as well as be liable to prosecution at the COVID-19 tribunal. Jumping Quarantine is a grave offence which is punishable by imprisonment and PTF will not shirk from prosecuting any violators.
“Nigerians must try to comply to the provisions of our entry protocol, because it is in your own best interest. Remember that if you obtain a fake PCR result and conspire and connived your way through the airport, you will be at a very high risk of taking COVID-19 infection to home to infect your loved ones and the people in your community”, he warned.
Speaking on the enforcement of the newly signed Corona Virus Disease Health Protection Regulations 2021, he commended the efforts of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in ensuring that residents comply with the regulations and charged states to take a cue, citing areas requiring special attention.
“From the larger stakeholder meeting that took place on January 29th 2021, the FCT Administration and Task Force Team has shown remarkable leadership and commitment in ensuring the new COVID regulation is publicized and enforced, especially in densely populated areas.
“Generally, more residents of the FCT are wearing facemasks and adhering to other covid-19 non-pharmaceutical policies. While commending the FCT for its efforts, it is pertinent that other states revive their task force teams and ensure the regulation is contextualized and implemented to curb community transmission.
“Notable areas that states should pay attention to are places worship, banks, public transport, the workplace, and schools. Markets and motor parks should also be regulated and regularly supervised for compliance”, he said.
