The WHO Country Representative in Nigeria, Dr Walter Kaza
Mulombo, said during the Presidential Task Force on COVID- 19 press briefing in
Abuja that the Pfizer vaccine, which requires keeping in extremely cold
temperature of minus 70 degrees celsius, which is colder than winter in
Antarctica, is the first to be approved for Nigeria by the world health body
and will be available for emergency use.
The federal government has also opened talks with China to
have access to COVID-19 vaccines for the country.
A report yesterday by Reuters also showed that Nigeria hopes
to get 42 million COVID-19 vaccines to cover one-fifth of its population
through the global COVAX scheme.
The WHO announcement came against the backdrop of the
federal government’s statement that the first batch of vaccines for immunising
20 per cent of the population against the virus will be delivered by the end of
the month.
Mulombo told the gathering that the first batch of vaccines
for Nigeria will arrive in a couple of weeks, a timeframe within the federal
government’s projection.
He said: “On the question of WHO endorsing or authorising
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.”
On his part, the Chairman, Presidential Task Force on
COVID-19, Mr. Boss Mustapha, stated that the federal government has begun
seeing the effect of the activities carried out during the Christmas
festivities with the increase in the daily numbers in people contracting
COVID-19 nationwide.
He added that Nigeria has joined South Africa in reporting
the highest daily infection cases in Africa.
He reinforced this concern by noting that 1,204 infections
were recorded on Monday, which represented the highest daily number ever
recorded since the national response began.
He said: “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.”
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), about two
weeks ago, had warned that the country risked an escalation in the number of
infected persons following an upswing in social activities during the Yuletide.
Mustapha, who is the Secretary to the Government of the
Federation (SGF), said statistics for Nigeria indicated the country has
recorded 91,351 total cases out of 958,911 persons tested for the virus.
The country has also recorded 1,318 deaths with 57
fatalities recorded in week 53, being the highest for any single week since the
start of the national response.
According to him, 731 out of the 35,419 members of the
National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members in the Batch B tested positive for
COVID-19, compared to 108 recorded during the Batch A.
He added that the private sector-driven CACOVID has
commenced supporting the national response with 100 oxygen cylinders per day
till the end of March 2021 for distribution to critical care centres in Abuja
In addition, President Muhammadu Buhari has approved that at
least one oxygen plant should be established in each state of the federation
immediately.
Also, approval has been given to rehabilitate five oxygen
plants across various tertiary health institutions in Abuja.
Mustapha added that the PTF has generated over 20,000
inbound passengers that have also defaulted. He vowed that the publication of
the names of defaulters will continue weekly till it is exhausted.