THE Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, has said that 22 persons have so far tested positive for COVID-19 out of the 1,473 persons of interest tested since the reopening of the international airspace.
Ehanire disclosed this on Thursday, during the briefing by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 in Abuja.
The Minister said the 22 persons were among passengers who recently returned from overseas.
He said, “We are especially worried about the huge COVID-19 increases in certain countries with which we have high volume of human traffic.
“The Federal Ministry of Health therefore wishes to advise Nigerians against non-essential travel to high burden countries. The risks that the movement of travelers create can only be countered with improved surveillance programmes.
“I wish to specially solicit that all travelers cooperate with border authorities to protect our people and also our health system from stress. We are obliged to reduce the risk of COVID-19 importation to a minimum.”
He added, “As at 26th September, out of a total of 1,473 Persons of Interest (POI) tested across 3 laboratories in the FCT since the opening of the international travel air space, 22 tested positive…
“Our testing and tracing capabilities have improved a lot, such that virtually every state has at least one laboratory that has increased our daily testing capacity to about 3,500.”
