FG To Implement No Covid-19 Test, No Work Order Effective December

By Ayodele Oni

Effective from December 1, the Federal Government has said it would ban workers who fail to show proof of their COVID-19 vaccination from accessing their offices.

The workers are expected to show their vaccination card or a Polymerase Chain Reaction PCR test is done within 72 hours.

Chairman of the Presidential Steering Committee, (PSC) on Covid 19, Boss Mustapha, disclosed this at Wednesday’s briefing of the committee.

Mustapha, who is also Secretary to Government of the Federation stated that “With effect from 1st 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.

“An appropriate service wide advisory/circular will be issued to guide the process.”

He pointed out that statistics generated over the last four weeks on testing have shown that the trend of infection is going down in some states while in others, the trajectory is upward.

“The combined total for testing by PCR and RDT now stands at about 3.141, 795 million persons.

“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.”

According to him, the Federal Government has removed South Africa, Turkey and Brazil from the list of countries where high level restriction was placed on travelers from visiting to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

He said the lifting of the  restriction was with immediate effect.

The three countries were among the worst hit by the deadly COVID-19 Delta strain that claimed many lives.

Mustapha said the decision to ease the restriction was taken by the PSC during a marathon session on Wednesday after the PSC reviewed the developments in the affected countries.

Indian was removed from the list on September 13 by the Federal Government in response to the improved situation in the country.