COVID-19: Nigeria to screen arriving passengers using RTD

The Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) has said it will screen passengers coming into the country using Rapid Diagnostic Test (RTD).

Dr. Geoffrey Okatubo, Director, Port Health Services, said this on Monday in Abuja, during the ministerial bi-weekly meeting on the update of COVID-19 response and developments in the country’s health sector.

Okatubo said positive cases would be quarantined and all negative cases would be monitored.

Read also: Alarm as South Africa records first case of most transmissible Covid variant

He said the federal government was undertaking other measures as well to keep the coronavirus situation under control.

“COVID-19 self-tests (RTD) will be handed out at all our international airports and land and sea borders, while travellers will also be informed on the importance of measures that they can take to prevent being infected,” he said.

He acknowledged that some people had experienced difficulties with the travel portal, noting that the health declaration certificate could also be filled out on arrival.

He said the health certificate form was also available at the country’s land borders and that it was compulsory.

“The health declaration is being done by the port health officers at the border,” he said.

He said completing the health declaration was good for the country if the citizens understood the advantages, part of which he said was to protect everyone and was also an international health regulation.