Airport workers screen for Coronavirus as passengers pass through security.
Professor of Virology, Oyewale Tomori, has advised the Federal Government and relevant health agencies to start collecting samples of inbound travellers on arrival at airports in order to quickly detect passengers infected with COVID-19.
Tomori, who is the Chairman, Expert Review Committee on COVID-19, stated this on Monday during an exclusive interview with The PUNCH
He also knocked the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and the Port Health Services for failing to enforce the 14-day self-isolation for inbound international travellers.
That many inbound travellers evade the mandatory Day 7 post-arrival COVID-19 tests while some passengers connive with officials of private laboratories to obtain fake COVID-19 test certificates to present to the government for retrieval of their passports.
Speaking with our correspondent on Monday, Tomori said the development was not surprising because Nigerians are law-breakers and the government has not been strict with enforcement.
He said, “Countries where they are loose over control are the ones having problem with Covid. Nigeria is number one when it comes to being loose with regulations and laws. We break laws and it is not surprising that this is happening.
“When I was in Ethiopia during the Ebola time, they let you in and every morning, somebody calls you and asks you, ‘Are you feeling fever?’ They do follow-ups and contact tracing but we abandon all of that in Nigeria.”
The virology professor said the “big people” in the country were the most culpable in the matter as as they maneuver their ways through the entry protocols.
