The ambassador noted that the closure of the embassy in Mexico was to forestall further spread of COVID-19 and to allow the embassy to be fumigated.
By Jeffrey Agbo
The Nigerian Embassy in Mexico has been closed due to a fresh outbreak of COVID-19 within the mission which has seen staff testing positive to the disease.
The Nigerian Ambassador to Mexico, Adejare Bello, ordered the closure after six staff tested positive for the disease, Special Adviser on Media to Bello, Abimbola Tooki, said in a statement on Sunday.
The closure will last seven days beginning from Monday, August 8, in the first instance.
Bello noted that the affected staff are currently being given maximum care while assuring Nigerians that the affected staff are in good hands.
The ambassador noted that the closure of the mission was to forestall further spread of the virus and to allow the embassy to be fumigated while other precautions are put in place.
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.
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.
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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.
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.