Nigeria will ban entry to non-Nigerian passengers who travelled to India, Brazil, and Turkey in the last two weeks because of concerns over the rapid spread of coronavirus in those three nations.

The travel ban announced on Sunday does not apply to passengers who transited through those countries, Nigeria’s presidential steering committee on COVID-19 said in a statement.

“These precautionary measures are a necessary step to minimise the risk of a surge in COVID-19 cases introduced to Nigeria from other countries,” it said.

Nigerians and permanent residents who were in those countries in the last 14 days will have to undergo mandatory quarantine for a week in a government-approved facility on arrival.

All passengers arriving in Nigeria will now have to show a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours of travel rather than the previous 96-hour period.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, has reported more than 165,000 coronavirus cases and 2,060 deaths since COVID-19 first emerged in China at the end of 2019.