Government of the United Kingdom has announced that it will remove Nigeria and 10 other countries from its red list on Wednesday 15 December, 2021.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid announced this on Tuesday while addressing Members of Parliament.
According to him, the red list is “now less effective in slowing the incursion of Omicron from abroad”.
“So I can announce today that whilst we’ll maintain our temporary testing measures for international travel, we will be removing all 11 countries from the travel red list effective from 4am tomorrow,” he said.
The 10 other countries initially placed on the list include Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The red list was reintroduced in late November as a precaution after the emergence of the new Omicron variant of the COVID-19.
Currently, all UK arrivals from red list countries must pay for and self-isolate in a pre-booked, government-approved hotel for 10 days.
They must also take COVID tests within 48 hours of setting off for the UK and PCR tests within two days of their arrival.
To get the reaction of Nigerian high Commission in London, a call was put across to the High Commissioner, His Excellency Amb. Sarafa Tunji Isola, but was not successful.
In replying to a WhatsApp message we sent across to him, Amb. Isola simply pointed us to a British originated media report by BBC, signifying the authenticity of the report.
The DEFENDER reports that the objection of the Nigerian High Commissioner to the inclusion of his country in the red list caught global attention, as the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, corroborated criticising his country for taking such a decision he called “travel apartheid.”
The new decision was coming amidst Nigeria’s fightback, saying that it will red list the UK in what Abuja considers to be in the best interest of the country.
