Nigerian Embassy in Mexico closed over fresh COVID-19 outbreak

• Biden out of isolation after testing negative for COVID-19

The Nigerian Ambassador to Mexico, Adejare Bello, has ordered the closure of the Nigerian mission in the Mexican city due to a fresh outbreak of COVID-19 within the mission. The closure will last seven days beginning from today, August 8, in the first instance.

As at the time of this report, six of the mission staff have tested positive to Coronavirus. This was disclosed by the Special Adviser on Media to Bello, Abimbola Tooki, yesterday.

Bello noted that the affected staff are currently being given maximum care while assuring Nigerians that the affected staff are in good hands of the appropriate medical personnel who have assured that the situation is under control, adding that the closure of the mission was to forestall further spread of the virus.

A total of 6.82 million cases with 328,000 deaths have so far been recorded in Mexico since the outbreak of the virus.

Bello disclosed that appropriate quarters like the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Abuja and that Mexico have been duly notified of this development.

The temporary closure, according to the Ambassador, will allow the Embassy to be fumigated and all other precautions put in place while the closure lasts.

Bello also disclosed that all home-based officers and the local staff of the mission have been directed to work from home pending further directives.

MEANWHILE, United States President Joe Biden was out of isolation on Sunday, after testing negative for COVID-19 for the second day in a row, the first time he was able to leave the White House since July 20.

Biden, 79, had tested positive and returned to isolation on July 30, in a result doctors attributed to “rebound” positivity from his earlier bout of the illness.

“I’m feeling good,” the smiling president told pool reporters at the White House as he boarded a helicopter which then flew him to his beach home in Delaware.

The president “will safely return to public engagement and presidential travel,” his physician Kevin O’Connor said in a statement announcing the negative test.

According to Biden’s official schedule he is set to travel to the southern state of Kentucky, the scene of devastating floods, on Monday.

Mexico has administered at least 209 million doses of COVID vaccines so far. Assuming every person needs two doses, that’s enough to have vaccinated about 82.2 per cent of the country’s population. The temporary closure will allow the Embassy to be fumigated among other precautionary measures.

On April 10, 2021, Mexico reported a large number of confirmed new deaths after consolidating data from last year to include deaths that were not confirmed at the time. Two-thirds of the 2,192 deaths reported on date had occurred in 2020 and at the time were not marked down as COVID-19 fatalities.