ANKARA

Nigeria has banned entry of travelers from 13 countries, including the U.S., the U.K., China, Italy, and France, as part of efforts to avert a coronavirus outbreak in the country, local media reported on Wednesday.

The ban will be enforced starting Friday and will last for at least four weeks, according to a report by local news website Pulse.

The Nigerian government has also advised citizens to avoid traveling to those 13 countries -- the U.S., the U.K., China, Italy, Iran, South Korea, Spain, Japan, France, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.

As of Wednesday, Nigeria had only three confirmed COVID-19 cases, according to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) data.

The virus emerged in Wuhan, China, last December, and has now spread to at least 164 countries and territories around the globe.

The WHO has declared the outbreak a pandemic and its data showed there were over 194,000 confirmed cases and nearly 7,900 deaths around the world by Wednesday evening.