By Uche Mbah
The World Health Organization, WHO, has endorsed the Pfizer produced Covid-19 vaccine for use by Nigeria just as Nigeria negotiates with China on the acquisition of the said vaccine.
Nigeria hopes to take delivery by the end of January.
Dr Walter Kaza Mulombo, the WHO Country Representative in Nigeria said during the Presidential Task Force on COVID- 19 press briefing in Abuja that the Pfizer vaccine is available for emergency use as the approved vaccine for Nigeria.
Nigeria, however, has already requested for the vaccines from china, and the country targets 42 million vaccines through the global COVAX scheme, according to Reuters. Government targets delivery of vaccines that will target 20% of the population till the end of January. Thia was confirmed by Mulombo.
“On the question of WHO endorsing or authorizing two vaccines, what I can say this evening is that WHO has endorsed for emergency use one vaccine, which is Pfizer vaccine, which is expected first to arrive in Nigeria in a couple of weeks. There are other candidate vaccines that will come on the list and in a few days after the strategic inventory by the group of experts in WHO reviews all the evidence. So the process is for WHO to review rigorously all the evidence published and made available by the vaccine manufacturers. After reviewing that evidence, there is a set of criteria, then we can decide or not put it on the emergency list. But for now, it just one of them, but there are others that may come on the same list”, Mulombo said.
In his own words, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, said that the festivities has resulted in the increase in covid 19 cases.
“From our analysis, we are beginning to see the effect of activities carried out during the Christmas festivities. We can only hope that numbers will not escalate beyond control. We, however, still appeal to all citizens to take full responsibility through compliance and vigilance”, he said.
Nigeria has recorded 91,351 total cases out of 958,911 persons tested for the virus.In a related development, the comptroller general of immigration, Muhammed Babandede, has said that the Immigration Act empowers him to revoke visas and confiscate passports of violators of the covid-19 protocols, saying that passports of such violators are already blocked, and they may not travel outside or enter the country.
“The public health is a big issue in the country and based on that directives, we have complied by blocking 100 passports from traveling, which means, even if they go to the police and declare those passports missing, they cannot be reissued anywhere in the world and they cannot cross our national borders until the period of six months or communication received from the right authorities stating that they have complied.
“This will also include non-Nigerians; we have the powers to revoke visas, the comptroller-general has the power to revoke visas,” Babandede said.
