COVID-19: Buhari, three ministers, others self-isolate after UK trip

FOLLOWING the emergence of Delta variant of COVID-19, President Muhammadu Buhari and members of his entourage who just returned from an 18-day trip to the Unit­ed Kingdom have gone into quarantine.

  The development was confirmed by Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, on Sunday, in an interview with a national broadcast station.

  According to him, the de­cision of Buhari to go into quarantine was in accordance with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) guidelines for international travel.

  There are unconfirmed reports that Buhari upon his arrival at the United Kingdom was seen in close contact with some officials of the Nigerian High Commission in London who had tested positive for coronavirus.

  There are also speculations that operations at the UK High Commission in London had been scaled down follow­ing the reported cases to ob­serve the regulatory 10 days isolation that is required from the authorities in the United Kingdom.

  Members of the presi­dent’s delegation to the UK included the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey On­yeama; Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba; Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, Ambassador Ahmed Rufai Abubakar, and the Na­tional Security Adviser, Babagana Munguno.

  President Buhari left Ni­geria for the United Kingdom on July 26, to participate in the Global Education Summit on Financing Global Partnership for Education (GPE) 2021-2025 and following that went to see his doctors.

  The decision by President Buhari to go into quarantine is bound to scale back activi­ties needing his physical con­sultation with aides as during the period he would be cut off from physical interaction with others.

  Buhari in quarantine would also impede efforts by stalwarts in the All Progres­sives Congress (APC) to find an amicable resolution to the issue of the legitimacy of the Mai Mala Buni leadership of the party.

  It was, however, not indi­cated how long President Bu­hari would be in quarantine and the nature of activities he would be able to do while in isolation.