As the nation prepares to open its airspaces for international flights on August 29, the Presidential Task Force on Covid-19 has come up with new protocols that intending travellers must comply with before embarking on their journey to Nigeria
One of which is that all intended travellers must have tested negative of Covid-19 PCR test at least 7 days before the journey before they would be allowed entry into the country.
The national coordinator for the Presidential Task Force on Covid-19,Dr Sani Aliyu stated during the Presidential Task Force briefing on Covid-19 in Abuja.
He said”We are narrowing the period of validity of the PCR test from the current14 days to 7 days beginning from the 29th of August
” Preferably the PCR test should be done as close as possible to the point of departure for Nigeria preferably between 48 to 72 hours.But we will still accept results that are valid within 7 days.
“Prior to boarding,we are currently developing a payment portal.As you are aware,at the moment for all evacuation flights PCR test that we do in country had been sponsored by the Aliko Dangote Foundation we are very grateful for their generosity we have had more than 13,0000, stranded Nigerians brought into the country as a result of this process.but from the 29th of August, travellers would be required to pay for their Covid-19 test in country.
He said for countries that” we regularly receive visitors from, they would require a list of accredited laboratories from the embassies which they would insist passengers use the laboratories for the test.’
” We are developing a national payment portal which will link the current lagos portal that is already active for passengers and we would allow validated acredited private laboratories in the country to provide these services.”
He said further information on the payment portal would be provided along with lists of accredited service providers and sample collection centres on the payment platform as well
as the NCDC websites
According to him, in order to ease the problem of delays at the airports,”We are currently working on switching the health declaration form that is filled manually to electronic format. Passengers would be asked to fill this form immediately before boarding so that the electronic version can be submitted and they can be cleared quickly when they arrive”.
Sani said Airlines who carry passengers with symptoms of covid-19, “would be fined three and half thousand United States dollars per passenger if they failed to comply with Covid requirements.”
Sani said the PTF is
