Senate wants flights from China, Italy, UK, others banned

The Senate, on Tuesday, called for travel restrictions to coronavirus epicentres as global toll hits over 6000.

The World Health Organisation (WHO), last week, named Europe as the new epicentre of the COVID19 pandemic.

The Senate also urged the federal government to set up more coronavirus testing centres, saying the five already established were grossly inadequate for a country of over 200 million populations.

This followed a ‘point of order’ by Chairman Senate Committee on Health, Senator Ibrahim Oloriegbe (APC, Kwara), who said Nigerians should be advised against traveling to epicentres of the pandemic.

Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, said there were no testing centres in the whole of southeast and north, urging the Centre for Disease Control to set up more centres in these zones.

He said those already established should be upgraded to a global standard.

Lawan also asked the federal ministry of health to come up with standards for states establishing isolation centres so that the country has a unified standard.

Earlier, Senator Oloriegbe urged Nigerians to strictly adhere to preventive measures such as avoiding hand shake and handwashing.

He also called for increased screening of those coming into the country.