The Federal Government will begin the application of the no-vaccination-no-work rule beginning from December 1, the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) on COVID-19 hinted yesterday.
PSC Chairman and Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Boss Mustapha said all Federal Government employees will be required to show prove of COVID-19 vaccination or a negative Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test result to gain access into their offices.
Mustapha, who spoke at a briefing by the PSC in Abuja, said: “With effect from 1st of December, 2021, Federal Government employees shall be required to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination or present a negative COVID-19 PCR test result done within 72 hours, to gain access to their offices, in all locations within Nigeria and our missions abroad.
“An appropriate service-wide advisory/circular will be issued to guide the process.”
The SGF also informed that the PSC had decided, after a proper review of development within their borders, to relax the restriction imposed on travellers from Brazil, Turkey and South African.
He said: “Over several months, four countries were placed on high level restriction for travelers from such countries. The PSC has after a review of the developments in these countries, decided to remove South Africa, Turkey, and Brazil from the restricted list.
“As you are aware, the UK has eased restrictions on fully vaccinated travellers from Nigeria to the UK with effect from 11th October. Nigeria welcomes this development and assures that the PSC shall continue to review Nigeria’s protocols based on global developments, science and national experience.”
Speaking on the diplomatic row with the United Arab Emirate (UAE) over travel ban due to testing conditions, the SGF said that the aviation authorities in collaboration with the diplomatic sector have made reasonable progress in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“Discussions are still on-going with the UAE authorities to resolve the impasse,” Mustapha informed.
He noted that increased passenger traffic in and out of the country will be experienced with the approach of two major religious festivities (Sallah and Christmas).
According to him, both events will trigger gatherings of people.
“While PSC prepares to escalate surveillance and other control activities, we urge the states and all Nigerians to also increase their vigilance and take measure to moderate activities,” he said.
Speaking further, Mustapha said statistics generated over the last four weeks on testing have shown that the trend of infection is going down in some states while going up in others.
He put the combined total figure for testing by PCR and rapid diagnostic test (RDT) at about 3.141,795 million persons.