Breaking: Nigerian Senate is suspending all public hearings until further notice

The Senate is suspending all public hearings from Tuesday, March 24, until further notice.

This follows the outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the country.

The Upper Chamber is also suspending excursions to the National Assembly as well as shutting the Senate gallery until further notice.

These decisions were announced by the President of the Senate Ahmed Lawan on Thursday during plenary.

The Senate gallery is where visitors and journalists observe plenary proceedings.

Senator Lawan, however, did not announce the suspension of plenary sessions in the Senate.

Meanwhile, the federal government of Nigeria on Wednesday morning announced the restrictions of entry into the country for travellers from 13 high-risk Covid-19 countries.

The countries are China, Italy, Iran, South Korea, Spain, Japan, France, Germany, United States of America, Norway, United Kingdom, Netherlands & Switzerland.

Each of the countries has over 1,000 cases of the disease, according to the Presidential Task Force on COVID19 which released a statement Wednesday morning.