The Presidential Task Force (PTF) has urged Nigerians living abroad, to not bother coming home to celebrate Christmas
The task force’s National Coordinator, Dr Sani Aliyu, made this known during a briefing in Abuja, where he stated that PTF’s strategy was to minimise travellers from other countries currently battling with new waves of COVID-19.
He also suggested that, Nigeria would not relax its COVID-19 guidelines and rules because of the celebrations, saying the country may not survive another wave of COVID-19 as being seen in Europe and the Americas.
“We know that we are going into the Christmas period. The PTF is already looking at steps to minimise the surge in passengers’ numbers we see during this period.
“But this will primarily be by discouraging people from non-essential travels. If you do not need to travel, remain in the country during the period.
“If you are outside the country, now is not the time to start coming in on holiday. If you do have to come into the country on holiday, be aware that you have to do the mandatory seven days isolation before you show yourself anywhere within the country and you have to be tested and confirmed to be negative to exit self-isolation.
“We will not be relaxing the rules simply because it is the holiday season,” he said.
He said with about 5,000 to 7,000 passengers arriving in the country every day, “the potential is that we could have up to 150 new cases being introduced into the country every day”.