The Federal Government has warned Nigerians to desist from travelling to India and three other nations in a new travel advisory released on Monday.
Indian is in the grip of a deadly second wave that began mid-February and the country reportedly saw a global record of 352,991 daily new Covid-19 infections on Monday.
According to the data from India’s Federal Health Ministry, about 2,3812 Covid-19 deaths were yesterday in the past 24 hours.
India, which is often visited by most of Nigeria’s elite for medical tourism, has been logging global daily records of over 300,000 cases for the last five days.
Altogether, 195,123 people have died while 17.3 million people have been infected with the virus in India.
Other countries listed by the Federal Government in the travel advisory included: South Africa, Turkey and Brazil.
The Presidential Steering Committee on Covid-19, formerly Presidential Task Force on Covid-19, also has warned Nigerians against shunning safety protocols against the virus, saying the pandemic was not over.
The National Incident Manager, PSC, Dr Mukhtar Muhammad, spoke at the media briefing by the committee yesterday
Muhammad said, “While we continue to reopen the economy, we must also be aware of the happenings around the globe. Mr Chairman (Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha) and the Honourable Minister of Health (Prof. Osagie Ehanire) have referred to specific incidents in India, Turkey, Brazil and South Africa.
“We sympathise with the people of these countries because it is a very trying time particularly for India that is recording over 300,000 cases a day and recording over 2,000 deaths.
“India is a prime destination for medical tourism for Nigeria. We know that many Nigerians like to travel – to go to India but now… we urge Nigerians to limit all travels to only essential travels, particularly to these affected countries.”
Muhammad noted that the safety guidelines regarding public spaces and mask-wearing still applied to public places such as supermarkets, malls, event centres, adding that “enforcement will continue to be observed and we will continue to monitor these places for violations.”
Which one is a lesser evil; to die by the Covid-19 when you travel to India or to die by the hands of bandits and kidnappers at your door steps?
Those who die by covid-19 had families or medical care givers by their dying bed, but those who die in the hands of bandits and kidnappers die looking at the faces of cruel human beings. Just let us be with this false Alarm!