COVID-19: 80 Travellers Tested Positive 7 Days After Arrival-PTF

Sani Aliyu, national coordinator of the presidential task force (PTF) on COVID-19, says 80 out of 2,403 tests carried out on international travellers returned positive.

Advertisement

Aliyu, who said this on Tuesday during the PTF briefing, explained the need for the repeat COVID-19 test being conducted on travellers after seven days of arrival in Nigeria.

The PTF coordinator said the patients arrived in the country with a negative PCR test, but that the repeat test would have been unnecessary if the country had “a system of enforcement of isolation such that everybody coming into the country self-isolated effectively for two weeks”.

“Of the 2,403 passengers that were tested in Lagos when we started the exercise, 80 were positive. Meanwhile, they had negative COVID-19 PCR test,” Aliyu said.

He also asked international travellers to pay only to laboratories on the travel portal of the government for their tests.

“No federal government agency is receiving these funds. The negotiation for the cost is between the state governments and the private labs themselves,” he said.

“The charges range between N35,600 for the Kano portal which we are just about to operationalise to N50,400 for Lagos.”