Why is Nigeria on the travel red list?

 

Nigeria has been placed on the UK’s travel red list – a move the UK government says will help slow the spread of the Omicron variant of the Covid-19 virus.

The Nigerian high commissioner to the United Kingdom has said the restrictions amount to “travel apartheid”.

What is the red list?

Nigeria is the latest African country to join the UK’s travel red list – along with South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Angola, Mozambique, Malawi and Zambia.

The only people allowed to enter the UK from these countries are UK or Irish nationals, or UK residents.

Arrivals from red-list countries are required to enter hotel quarantine – at their own expense – and isolate for 10 days.

These countries have been targeted because the Omicron variant was first identified in southern Africa.

But the fact all of the nations currently on the red list are African has been called as “wicked and unfair”.

What is the criteria for the red list?

The decision to place a country on the red list is based on risk assessments from the Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC), including:

• the quality of its testing structures, including checking for variants
• the number of cases those systems have identified
• whether people have been catching new variants there or the cases have come from overseas
• whether it has exported cases of new variants to other countries, including to the UK
• the quality of travel links with the UK

Why was Nigeria added?

The UK government says Nigeria was added to the list because:

• its analysis suggests a strong indication of Omicron in Nigeria
• several cases identified in the UK are linked to travel from Nigeria
• Nigeria has strong travel links with South Africa, where Omicron was first detected

IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES

Image caption,

Nigeria has reported far fewer Covid cases than the UK

The JBC provides reports summarising the data used to inform specific country decisions but the one on Nigeria is yet to be published.

A UK government statement announcing Nigeria’s addition to the red list said the “vast majority” of Omicron variant cases in the UK “have clear links to overseas travel from South Africa and Nigeria”.

How many Covid cases are there in Nigeria?

With about 90 cases identified a day over the past week, reported Covid cases in Nigeria are far lower than in most of Europe – but testing in Africa is way below European levels.

During the last week of November, Nigeria completed about 0.07 tests per 1,000 people a day, compared with about 14 per 1,000 in the UK and about eight per 1,000 in France.

But in the week up to 2 December, Nigeria still identified fewer cases per test than several European countries – and South Africa.

However, on top of different testing regimes, all countries collect and share data differently, making international comparisons tricky.

The UK government collects data on people testing positive for Covid after arriving in the UK.

The latest, from the start of November, shows 1% of those arriving from Nigeria tested positive, similar to the proportion among those arriving from several European countries.

What about cases of Omicron?

The Nigerian Centers for Disease Control (NCDC) has identified only three cases of Omicron in the country, all linked to travel from South Africa.

This is fewer than in several European countries, including the UK – where there have been 336 reported Omicron cases.

But the NCDC data is five days old, so the numbers are likely to have risen since.

Genome sequencing – the very sophisticated and relatively rare process required to identify variants – is also less advanced in Nigeria than in the UK or South Africa, for example, so the extent of the Omicron spread there may not have been picked up effectively.

In England, 21 Omicron cases had been linked to travel from Nigeria, the Department of Health said.

What about vaccination rates?

A country’s vaccination rate is also considered before restricting travel, although this is just “contextual information” alongside genome-sequencing ability and Covid transmission.

Vaccination rates in Africa are well below the global average.

In Nigeria, as of 5 December, there had been just 4.8 doses given per 100 people, compared with more than 178 per 100 in the UK.

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Cabinda: Ghanaian entrepreneur wants to invest in cocoa product

Cabinda - The businessman from the Republic of Ghana and consultant of the company Yaya Global Limited, Foster Sankara, said this Friday in Cabinda, he is interested in investing in the production and expansion of cocoa cultivation in the province.

After a visit to the inland municipalities of Buco-Zau and Belize, Foster Sankara said he had found an acceptable level of production of cocoa from the four existing species in Cabinda, which had good commercial quality.

The consultant of the company Yaya Global Limited, during his visit to the production fields in Maiombe forest, made contact with producers in Caio and Viede farms (Buco-Zau) with 8 hectares each and in Vaco Kungo farm (Belize) with over 30 hectares.

The businessman said he was interested and already thinking of merging organic and biological cocoa from Cabinda with organic from Ghana, within modern technological parameters.

Angola amputee football team finish third in African Cup of Nations

Luanda – Angola finished third in the African Cup of Nations for Amputee Football after beating Tanzania by 4-0 on Saturday to increase to three the number of bronze medals the national team have won in the event.

Angola also finished third in 2009 and 2011 tournaments.

The game for the third and fourth positions was completely dominated by the Angolans against a hosting team that was unable to respond.

The goals were scored by Sabino (twice), Hilário and Chiquete.

The Angola national team were runners-up in 2013 and crowned champions in 2019 when the country hosted the competition.

Ghana won this year's edition after beating Liberia 3-2 in the final of the competition held in Tanzania.

Arikana headlines Dinner with Royalty in Ghana

On a night of glitz and glamour, the more the crowd celebrated Dr. Chihombori Quao, the more she tried to share the spotlight with others.

The elegant décor and the exquisite African attire that over 95% of the attendees wore made for the Royal celebration that the night was billed to be. The lighting seemed to reflect off the glitz and pageantry of the ‘Royals” in attendance.

You have not seen before, or perhaps will not see again, a celebration of Africa’s oneness like this. There were easily over one hundred nationals of Africans present.

Colombia was present as were Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, north, south, east and west of the United States, Cameroon, Zambia, and so on.

But the language was “African.”

The language spoken might have been English, but the French, Latin, and speakers of all other languages communicated with the pride in their eyes, the pep in their step, and the bonding sentiment that filled the giant, exquisite hall in Accra’s plush East Legon suburb.

“Dr. Arikana has really started something magnificent, and there ain’t no stopping us now,” remarked an immaculately-clad young lady from The Netherlands who relocated there from the United States and is now looking to relocate to Ghana.

And the Kings and Queens in the house – one (The Adangbe King) showed up in a western suit purposefully to allow the other (The Asebu King who has donated 5,000 acres of land for the building of the Wakanda One City of Return) to enter the hall with the celebratory aura laden with the drumming and dancing befitting a royal.

And what Her Excellency Joyce Banda, former president of Malawi who assumed power in April of 2012 with no electricity and running water but restored them in under 100 days.

But the night belonged to dr. Arikana Chihomori Quao.

The unanimous love for the Queen of Africa, as Arikana is constantly called, occupied such space in the hall that there wasn’t mush left to share – try as she did.

Twice Arikana was introduced to deliver her vintage passionate and galvanizing speech, and twice she only dropped one or two though-provoking statements but only to reintroduce others to speak.

Even as the cameras followed her to get a statement or two during the waning moments of the evening, Arikana would always politely ask that other key participants of ADDI rather be interviewed.

Such is the modesty hidden beneath the Queen of Africa whose unrelenting call-out of injustices be they by the super-powers or by fellow Africans who turn a wanton blind eye to the flight of Africa.

The leader that she is, Dr. Chihombori Quao did not pull one of those speak-and-disappear appearances. She stayed and availed herself to talk with just about every attendee who wanted a chat. As it got close to midnight she was still interacting with folks even as the crowd started thinning out.

It was one of those nights that you wished would never come to an end, but it had to. The ADDI delegation travels to Cape Coast to begin the work of building Wakanda One City of Return.

DNT News, East Legon, Accra.

 

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