The House of Representatives has urged the Federal Government to monitor the COVID-19 Omicron variant.
The Speaker of House of Representative, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila said this on Tuesday.
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Gbajabiamila urged the government to control a crisis that can result from this.
He also told the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control to control the spread. Gbajabiamila said the NCDC should “step up national response mechanisms to stem the spread of COVID-19.”
This was a reaction to the claims by the Canadian Govt that the COVID-19 Omicron variant is in Nigeria.
Canada announced on Sunday that two travellers from Nigeria had the virus.
Although the NCDC had said that there is no record of the case in the country, there is unrest. This is because, on Monday, delegates from South Africa were not tested.
Reacting to this, the House of Representative leader has advised the Government.
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They also summoned the NCDC to give an update on the control of the pandemic in Nigeria.
Jos-South/Jos-East Federal Constituency of Plateau State, Rep Dachung Musa Bagos gave his contributions.
He urged the Government to consider the fact that Nigerians are frequent travellers. Strict measures should be taken to control it here so that Nigerians do not experience restrictions.
Bogos explained that the UK for instance had started placing travel restrictions on some countries. This is because there is fear that this virus is even more dangerous than the Delta Variant.
“This new variant is even deadlier than the Delta variant.
“It is important that the executive activates response mechanisms to safeguard Nigerians.
“This is also because Nigerians travel a lot and the rest of the world is also interested in what happens in Nigeria”, he added.
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Another member Rep Henry Nwaoba from Imo State spoke on Nigeria not being proactive.
“We can’t sit back and wait until Nigeria is placed on the list of countries with a travel restriction by the UK and other nations.
“In Canada today, there are three cases of Omicron traced to travellers from Nigeria”, he stated.
The motion was passed unanimously.
Source: PUNCH HealthWise
