Nigerian Government has admitted that its policy on self-isolation especially for those coming into the country by air, land or sea, has failed.
The Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire said this during the daily press briefing of the Presidential Task Force on Thursday, adding that the failure was because, at that time, there were multiplications of COVID-19 cases from such persons.
According to him, the provision of self-isolation has now been replaced with quarantining of returnees on arrival.
He explained further that the policy currently in existence is that anybody arriving Nigeria from anywhere whether by air, land or by sea will go into quarantine, which takes 14 days.
During that 14 days, according to the Minister, the returnee will be observed for signs or symptoms of coronavirus disease and tested at the beginning and at the end.
“We don’t have a provision for isolation at home. At the very beginning, we had that provision that if you came in and did not have a symptom, you isolate at home,” he said.
“Since then, all the cases we are dealing with now came in and multiplied. In order to reduce the incidence of cases coming in and then forming clusters of new infections, the provision has now changed to what we call isolation-one or quarantine.”
He said that quarantine is for those who have not been confirmed or who are under isolation.
The Minister said at this If the signs and symptoms show up in the person, they will be tested.
And if they are positive of the virus, they will go to treatment centres.
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