Coronavirus in Africa-A Worldwide Pandemic

Nigeria has joined the rest of the African countries with restriction on airlines that are arriving from countries with high cases of coronavirus. Nigeria has shut down their airports and land borders to minimize the number of people from entering the country. On Monday, Tunisia suspended all international flights and closed their land borders to prevent the risk of spread of the virus. They also put a restriction on market squares gathering and included a curfew between 6am to 6pm to avoid overcrowded areas. Sudan has sealed off all seaports, land crossings and airports, according to Mohamed Al-Faki Suleiman, a spokesman for Sudan’s Transitional Sovereign Council.

Hundreds of international flights have been canceled and suspended, schools are closes, and there is a restriction limiting travelers from coronavirus-hit countries or there is a ban from visiting some African countries.

Nigeria has banned the entry of travelers from 13 different countries including the US and UK- this was announced on Wednesday due to the rise of cases in the country. "The Federal Government of Nigeria has also suspended the issuance of visa on arrival to travelers from these countries. All travelers returning from these countries prior to the restriction will be in supervised self-isolation, monitored by the NCDC and Port Health Services". The ban will be effective on the 20^th of March 2020 and will be revoked until further notice.

Health officials have reported an addition of five cases of COVID-19 in Nigeria; therefore, resulting to a total of eight confirmed cases, which one of the patients have been recovered from the virus, “an Italian man on a business trip in the country”, stated by the authorities.

Egypt has made an announcement on suspending international flights starting on Thursday to prevent the spread of the virus in the country. Also, Egypt has the highest number of Coronavirus case in Africa. Meanwhile, other countries such as Djibouti is yet to report any cases of Coronavirus; however, they have restricted the entry of all international flights in the country, according to a statement made by the US embassy in Djibouti. All international government officials are in support of the travel bans across the world (Stephanie Busari and Bukola Adebayo, 2020)

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REFERENCES:

Stephanie Busari,  and B. A. (2020). Nigeria coronavirus: entry ban for travelers from 13 countries as it announces five new cases - CNN. Retrieved March 19, 2020, from https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/18/africa/nigeria-coronavirus-travel-restrictions-intl/index.html