The United Kingdom (UK) has announced plans to lift the travel ban placed on Nigeria and 10 other African countries with effect from 4 am tomorrow (Wednesday). The ban was imposed in late November as a precaution after the emergence of the Covid-19 Omicron variant.
Nigeria, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Angola, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe were listed among countries the British government sought to prevent its citizens from entering the European country as a way of controlling the new threat from the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus. "Now that there is community transmission of Omicron in the UK and Omicron has spread so widely across the world, the travel red list is now less effective in slowing the incursion of Omicron from abroad,"
Health Secretary Sajid Javid said in a message to parliament referencing that the virus had spread so widely in Britain that the travel ban on Nigeria and other countries no longer had any purpose and hence the decision to lift it. "Whilst we will maintain our temporary testing measures for international travel we will be removing all 11 countries from the travel red list effective from 4 am tomorrow morning" Currently, all UK arrivals from red list countries must pay for and self-isolate in a pre-booked, government-approved hotel for 10 days. The Nigerian government backed by the National Assembly had raised serious objections to the plans especially against the background of the fact that many Nigerian leaders have their children and family in Britain.
