To curb the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic, the Lagos state government has placed 14 countries on its COVID-19 watchlist.

The state commissioner for health, Akin Abayomi made the announcement on Wednesday May 12.

Abayomi who explained that travellers coming from other countries into Lagos have been classified into three groups — the red countries, the amber countries, and the green countries, added that the state government is outlining measures that will guide the management of inbound passengers of interest (POIs) from other countries.

The red countries are India, Brazil and Turkey where new variants of COVID-19 are causing an increase in infection rate.

The amber countries are Canada, US, France, Germany, Netherlands, Togo, Ghana, Cameroun, Angola, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda.

The green countries are countries where there are no records of variants from red countries and no clear increase in the number of daily confirmed cases.

Abayomi added;

“Our protocol for management of inbound passengers from the Red Countries will include: a mandatory PCR test 72 hours before departure, PCR test post arrival and a 14-day isolation in a government approved facility paid for by the passenger.

“Passengers of interests from the Amber Countries are also required to do PCR test 72 hours before departure, PCR test post arrival and a mandatory seven days isolation at home which will be monitored by our logistics, surveillance and EkoTELEMED teams.”