Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has placed 46 people who had contact with a female Ebola patient on a no-fly list for three weeks.
Nigeria recorded its first Ebola virus case in 2026 on Tuesday after a woman travelling through Uganda arrived in the West African country on October 5.
Mr Keyamo said he held a virtual meeting with Health Minister Muhammad Ali Pate to restrict the traced contacts from travelling by air during the isolation period.
“I have therefore directed the NCAA (Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority) to immediately inform all local and international airlines of this development,” the aviation minister said.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control established that the carrier of the Ebola disease is a diplomat but withheld her nationality.
Mr Keyamo explained that Mr Pate sent him a list of 44 contacts and two additional names of the diplomat’s domestic staff for the no-fly list.
“He (the health minister) shared with me a list of 44 persons with whom the affected person came in contact at the hospital when she had developed the symptoms and an additional two persons who are her domestic staff,” the minister said on Thursday.
Mr Keyamo added, “Whilst efforts are ongoing to isolate them for now until there is certainty they have not been infected with the virus, the aviation authorities are required to put them on a no-fly list for at least 21 days (which is the period that the symptoms are normally expected to manifest).”
The aviation minister said he issued a directive to enhance screening of travellers at all airports.
“I have also directed the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to heighten Ebola response and surveillance protocols across all international airports,” he said.
“Measures already being implemented by FAAN include enhanced health screenings, temperature checks, travel history tracking, digital health declarations, and strict inter-agency coordination with the NCDC following regional outbreak alerts earlier,” he added.
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