Those unvaccinated must present a negative test taken within one day of travel.
The order comes into effect from 8 November, 2021 and replaces the complete ban of inbound travelers who stayed over 14 days in Covid-19 endemic countries just before travelling.
This includes South Africa.
The US recognises World Health Organization accepted vaccines and vaccines with its FDA emergency approval: Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca and China’s Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines.
Covid-19 vaccine certificates from Nigeria and many African countries are not recognised by several western countries.
As a result, they require fully vaccinated travelers carrying them to provide a pre-departure test, or undertake a day 8 test, or self-isolate for 10 days on arrival just as travelers who are not fully vaccinated entering a foreign country.
This was relaxed by one of such countries, United Kingdom, for Nigeria from 11 October, 2021.
This covers travelers from Nigeria who have had the full dose of an approved Covid-19 vaccine, and a certificate to show for it, at least 14 days before arrival in United Kingdom.
The day the final dose was administered does not count as one of the 14 days.
Nigerian Covid-19 vaccine certificates are now partly, recognised as travelers to the UK carrying them do not need a pre-departure test.
They however, still need to book and pay for a day 2 test after arrival.
It is important to note that mistakes in the Covid-19 vaccine certificate (like in the spelling of names) not tallying with the name in the owner’s passport, invalidates such certificate.
Examples are Isah for Isa; Ezeh for Eze; Shamsideen for Shamsudeen or Habeebah for Habiba.
Another common problem is discrepancy in the date of birth in the documents.
The information on Nigerian Covid-19 vaccine certificates, which are now encoded, is not just on name and date of birth but, also on type of vaccine administered, number of doses (jabs) received and the date(s).
The data is contained in a Bar Code seal as security information which cannot be manually altered and is recognised by the British government.
Covid-19 vaccines approved for use in Nigeria are all accepted by the British government.
A Covid-19 vaccine certificate with mistakes and discrepancies in the information in the Bar Code seal that do not tally with the ones in the owner’s passport calls for big trouble and rejection.
Such encoded data can only be read with a QR or Bar Code reader.
It can be read at the point of entry into a foreign country or by any person using a QR/ Bar Code reader app which can easily be downloaded in a Google or Apple play store on the internet using a smart phone or other devices.
One can therefore, personally scan the Bar Code seal in his Covid-19 vaccine certificate, using the downloaded app, to ensure that all the information in it is correct.
Due to the high volume of vaccinations done in a day, filling-in data into the Bar Code seal (in the Covid-19 vaccine certificates in Nigeria) is prone to mistakes.
These errors can pass easily and cause problems if the information (in the Bar Code seal) is not cross-checked as it is entered or, scanned afterwards and confirmed to be correct before travelling.
Far fewer cases of Covid-19 infections are believed to be reported in Africa due to the poor healthcare infrastructure in the continent.
By mid October, 2021 about 8.5 million Covid-19 cases were confirmed in Africa but, independent health observers believe the actual figure is about 60 million.
