The federal government has reintroduced the restriction on mass gatherings after a spike in COVID-19 cases recorded in some countries.
The presidential steering committee on COVID-19 said on Monday that the restriction is effective from Tuesday.
Mukhtar Mohammed, the committee’s national incident manager who announced the measures, said event centres and non-essential public places such as night clubs would remain closed till further notice.
Religious gatherings and social events such as weddings would hold only with 50 percent of maximum capacity while official engagements and meetings are to continue to hold virtually.
The committee directed security personnel to enforce the adherence to the measures as well as others that have been in place to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
The step comes amid concerns over the surge in infections and resultant deaths recorded in some countries particularly Brazil, India and Turkey.
The federal government had earlier announced that foreigners who recently visited the three countries will no longer be allowed to enter Nigeria.
It also reduced the validity period of the pre-boarding COVID-19 PCR test for all Nigeria-bound passengers from 96 to 72 hours.
In India, which has been the worst hit in recent weeks, 366,161 new infections and 3,754 deaths were reported on Monday, taking the country’s tally to 22.66 million with 246,116 deaths as hospitals remain overwhelmed.
Nigeria has so far recorded 165.419 of the virus out of which 2,065 have died while 156,300 have been discharged.
Efforts are also being made to vaccinate as many Nigerians as possible although at a snail’s pace: 1.7 million shots have been administered as of Monday, mostly to health workers and other priority groups.