The United Kingdom has lifted the travel ban placed on Nigeria and 10 other countries.
This was disclosed by the UK Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Sajid Javid. While addressing members of the parliament, he said the red list is ineffective in slowing the spread of Omicron.
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He said, “so, I can announce today that whilst we’ll maintain our temporary testing measures for international travel.
“We will be removing all 11 countries from the travel red list effective from 4:00 am tomorrow.”
See the full list of the 10 other countries initially banned by the UK below:
- Angola.
- Botswana.
- Eswatini.
- Lesotho.
- Malawi.
- Mozambique.
- Namibia.
- South Africa.
- Zambia.
- Zimbabwe.
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In a report obtained from Daily Mail, the UK Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, spoke against the red list. He instead advised that testing for the fully vaccinated should replace the red list.
Also, the UK-based medium revealed imminent scrapping of the travel red list.
Meanwhile, after the initial ban by the UK, other countries followed the train. Some disclosed the reason for placing a travel ban on Nigeria while others didn’t.
The countries that gave the reasons are:
- Cananda.
- UK.
- Argentina
The country that didn’t explain outrightly is Saudi Arabia.
The decision of Saudi Arabia has affected individuals who were supposed to partake in the lesser hajj.
This notice was released a few days after the United Kingdom issued a similar ban to Nigerian travellers over concerns of the COVID-19 Omicron variant.
The country did not give a reason for this circular being released on Wednesday, December 8.
However, this circular will affect the 2022 lesser hajj pilgrims if the instructions are not reviewed in time.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia released this circular through its General Authority of Civil Aviation.
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The circular read in part, “Instructions: Suspending all incoming flights and suspending entry to the kingdom for non-nationals coming directly or indirectly from the Federal Republic of Nigeria except for those who have spent a period of no less than 14 days in another country from which they are allowed to come.
“Home quarantine will be applied for a period of five days to Saudi citizens coming from the mentioned country, provided PCR examination on the first day and fifth day regardless of immunisation status.
“Failure to comply with circulars issued by GACA is an explicit violation of government’s orders. Legal procedures shall be initiated against violators who will be held responsible.”