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Medical Academy in Nigeria advises FG to shut down airports for two weeks after finding Indian variant of COVID19 in two states
The Academy of Medicine Specialties in Nigeria has advised the Federal government to shut the country’s international airports for at least two weeks to avoid the third wave of the COVID19 pandemic.
In an urgent advisory issued on Sunday, April 25, the President of the Academy of Medicine Specialties of Nigeria, Prof. Oladapo Ashiru, noted that the transmission of the third wave was still active but at a low level. According to Professor Ashiru, a team from the academy have found five sequences of the India B.1.617 in the country, specifically in Edo and Osun states, adding that a new B.1. 1.318 variant that emerged in Nigeria with major characteristics of other VOCs was spread out of the country in January this year and was creating havoc in Mauritius.
“The B. 1. 525 that we discovered in Nigeria late last year is now the dominant variant in Nigeria (spreading faster than the UK B.1.1.7). This lineage is also spreading at a super-fast speed in the UK and other European countries.
The B.1.525 is now also the second most popular variant in Africa after the B.1.351Y V2 from South Africa. These are our most recent findings at ACEGID, Redeemer’s University, Ede,” he explained.
He recommended that Nigeria should close the international airports to all flights for at least two weeks, stressing that the third wave was affecting not only India but France, Germany, and Italy. He stated that the ongoing transmission in the country was caused largely by those inbound passengers from India and those countries with surges in the daily cases.
According to him, many of them traveled into Nigeria through ”indirect” flights.
He called on the federal government to be proactive.
“Nigeria cannot afford to have a third wave. Only a small percentage of the population has been vaccinated. Furthermore, all the theories speculated for our immunity such as heat, sun, and other endemic immunities also apply to India,” he said.
