By Milton Tella – The UK-Nigeria Diaspora Covid-19 Response Consortium, a group of multi-sectoral professionals have issued its position statement on the travel ban on Nigerians by the UK government.
The group calls on the UK government to rescind its decision to place Nigeria on the Red List of countries immediately. A communique issued by the UK-Nigeria Diaspora Covid-19 Response Consortium on 10 December 2021, made available to African Voice reads: “On Nov. 26 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) named a new variant of concern of the Coronavirus, Omicron. The emergence of this variant has resulted in a spate of reactions and interventions, keeping the pandemic in the news. Researchers are yet to determine if it is more contagious than other variants.
While an evidence-based approach has been the sustained call for the management of the pandemic, recent actions of some western nations placing travel restrictions on African nations is a divergence from this plan.
The UK-Nigeria Diaspora Covid-19 Response Consortium is cognisant of the need to be concerned about the new Omicron variant.
The characterisation of the variant was undertaken by South African scientists. Though not the source of the index case, a growing number of countries are increasingly restricting travels from Southern African countries. Israel, Morocco and Japan have banned all foreign travellers. There is a disproportionate restriction on African countries to the exclusion of western nations that have recorded more cases of the Omicron variant.
Omicron was detected in a traveller and not as a local transmission in Nigeria (Figure 1; source: New York Times). Ironically, Britain with reported 334 cases and Nigeria with only 6 cases and no local transmission at the onset was added to the banned (red list countries) by the UK Health Secretary, Sajid Javid on 7 December 2021. No rational or scientific basis has been provided to justify this inclusion.
There has been an unusual increase in infections in the UK since the discovery of the variant due to its existing presence in the UK. Current steps of pre- and post travel Covid testing should minimise the import of Covid.
Non-pharmaceutical interventions and the vaccination programs have proved to be highly effective in containing the pandemic and reducing the severity of illness caused by Covid-19.
The decision is unjustifiable without providing additional scientific reasons either publicly or at intergovernmental level. The plan for a review and decision by the UK government on 20 December 2021 is unjustifiable, punitive delay.
Rather than the questionable travel ban on African countries, the UK government should redirect its efforts towards these effective response measures.
The Consortium supports the call for further research to increase the understanding of the transmissibility of the virus, virulence and whether it is able to escape natural or vaccine induced immunity. Early reports from South Africa suggest that the virus is very transmissible but has not resulted in increased severity of illness with the majority of hospitalised patients not requiring oxygen therapy in contrast to what was seen during the Delta wave of the pandemic. A clearer picture should emerge in the next two weeks when it would be possible to assess if hospitalised patients develop more severe disease requiring oxygen therapy and or intensive care admission.
The World Health Organisation has advocated for a more balanced response in line with the science while these efforts to understand the variant are ongoing.
A failure to reverse the ban or increase the vaccine supply to Africa will be counterproductive to Western countries. The risk of more complex mutations of the virus in the largely unvaccinated parts of the world is real and this will result in persistence of Covid-19 in populations, western countries, Africa, Asia and globally.
The UK-Nigeria Diaspora Covid-19 Response Consortium calls on the global community to respond to this threat with more practical steps based on science while we await much needed and emerging data on Omicron. These steps include
1. Rapid delivery of Covid vaccines to African and all low- and middle-income countries to boost the vaccination rate. While less than 10% of adults have access to vaccination in Africa, the UK, USA currently have excess supply with double vaccination as high as 80-90%. We call on the nations of the G7, G20, European Union and Russia to redeem their pledge to Africa with regards to the availability of vaccines.
2. A more coordinated response to emerging variants through the World Health Organisation (WHO).
3. Nigeria should embrace the face covering, identifying infected person through the use of lateral flow and molecular tests and isolating those infected until they become non-infectious.
We acknowledge the evidenced-based approach advocated by the World Health Organisation and the indication that this new variant, which may be more transmissible, is possibly linked more with a milder disease. However, further research should be undertaken to understand the transmissibility, severity and vaccine-immunity escaping characteristics of the Omicron variant.
The Consortium calls on the UK government to rescind its decision to place Nigeria on the Red List of countries immediately in light of the above. Doing so will be the right ethical and scientific course of action.”
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