The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 has raised an alarm, that some international flight passengers who presented negative COVID-19 results tested positive for the virus on their arrival in Nigeria.
National Coordinator of the PTF, Dr. Sani Aliyu, disclosed this yesterday in an appearance before a joint senate committee on health and aviation.
Appearing alongside the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, Aliyu said there was a case in which 40 per cent of passengers on a single flight tested positive for COVID-19, despite presenting negative COVID-19 results prior to boarding.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Senator Ibrahim Oloriegbe, at the meeting, expressed concern about the protocols for international flight operations in relation to COVID-19 test requirements.
“The issue is about the protocols that have been set up for testing of passengers, either intending to fly out of Nigeria or coming into Nigeria, and the challenges associated with it,” Oloriegbe said.
In his response, Aliyu said the protocols were necessary in order to limit the possibility of bringing more COVID-19 positive cases into the country as a result of past experience.
“When we started with the evacuation flights and special flights, the arrangement then was that people coming into the country will need to have negative COVID-19 test PCR results, which have to be valid at the time, that is the seven days,” he said.
Aliyu, explained the need to avoid such situations, he said the PTF held meetings with ambassadors of the affected countries which had issued negative COVID-19 results to persons flying into Nigeria, who turned out to be positive, in order to determine what could have gone wrong.
He also added that as part of efforts to address the challenges, the validity period has now been reduced to four days before such passengers are due for arrival in the country.
