The Federal Government advised Nigerians against unimportant local and international travels during the festive period as COVID-19 cases continued to rise in the country.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control gave the advice in its latest COVID-19 situation report as the Lagos State Government vowed to get tough with violators of compulsory tests for international passengers coming into the country.
Also, officials of states like Bauchi, Ogun and Kano in separate interviews said, they would thoroughly put measures to ensure compliance with safety protocols and mass vaccination. They stated this as COVID-19 cases in the country increased by 761.45 per cent within two weeks.
The NCDC confirmed in its latest report that no fewer than 845 passengers tested positive within one week.
It said, “The spread of COVID-19 variants of concern including the Omicron variant may lead to a surge in cases globally due to mutations which could give the SARS-CoV-2 virus a specific advantage such as increased transmissibility, possibility of more severe illness or evasion of tests currently used for the detection of COVID-19.
The centre also noted that the country had continued to speed up testing. For instance, it stated that there was an increase in the number of test samples from week 48 to week 49.
“In Week 49, the number of samples tested increased to 62,537 from 51,345 reported in week 48. These were reported in 36 states and FCT”.
A total of 3,686,403 tests have been conducted so far. The Omicron variant has led to an increase in cases across the world. With many countries currently in the fourth wave of the pandemic, the World Health Organisation continues to advocate for increased vaccination and administration of booster shots.
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