COVID-19 Omicron: UK Adds Nigeria To Red List, Bans Foreign Travellers

Nigeria has been added by the United Kingdom to its red list. This is due to the discovery of COVID-19 Omicron cases linked to Nigeria.

The decision was announced in a tweet by the UK on Saturday, in a bid to tackle the spread of the virus.

Following the latest development, all international arrivals to the UK will now be required to take pre-departure COVID-19 tests, the Health Secretary, Sajid Javid, said on Saturday.

According to the new protocol, non-UK and non-Irish citizens who are travelling in from Nigeria will not be allowed entry into the UK.

Meanwhile, UK citizens and residents will be able to enter the country from Nigeria but they will have to pay to stay in a quarantine for 10 days, Sky reports.

The change starts from 4:00am on Monday, according to Javid.

“Nigeria is second only to South Africa for cases linked to Omicron,” he said.

He added that there are “27 cases already in England and that’s growing”.

Javid also said the measures are “hugely unfortunate” for people who already had travel plans, but insisted that they would be “temporary”.

“We want to remove them as soon as we possibly can,” he added, saying that “vaccines remain our first line of defence”.