Buhari, Osinbajo, others to first take COVID-19 vaccine

President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Secretary to Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha and other critical Nigerian leaders are to first take COVID-19 vaccines to demonstrate their safety when they arrive the country before the end of January.

The Executive Secretary, National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Faisal Shuaib made this known while fielding questions from journalists at the briefing of the Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19 in Abuja on Thursday.

Shuaib said this is the standard practice even in developed countries where apart from the prioritisation of health workers, critical leaders that a particular country does not want to be wiped away by the virus are given the vaccine, insisting that priority was not just for politicians.

“We have to prioritize our health workers because they are the ones who are in direct contact with cases, especially those ones that work in isolation units”, he said.

Shuaib stated that: “Right now we do not have studies that shown the level of efficacy of the vaccines against the new streaks. One thing that we are sure of is that Pfizer vaccine is about 95% efficacious. We should be mindful of the fact that in Nigeria we are still searching for evidence of the new stream. It is only so far in the UK that we are aware that the predominant stream are the new virulents.

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“I also want us not to upset too much about this new stream. What the manufacturers have indicated is that even if there is the need to tweak the vaccine is not going to be a major problem in terms of work that needs to be done to provide a vaccine against these new streams.

“One thing that we are aware of is that this vaccine is new. So we don’t have absolute information how long it lasts because the vaccines are just a few months old – it’s going to be a question of time before w are going to know exactly how long the immunity will last.

On his part, the Director General, NCDC Chikwe Ihekweazu informed that the rate of infection among health workers is on rise.

Ihekweazu who was represented by Head of Department, Surveillance and Epidemiology Department, Elsie Ilori, said, “We are having increasing infection among the health workers, we are appealing to them not to let their guards down and adhere to Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) measures.”

He also informed that majority of the cases recorded so far are people that fall between the ages of 21 to 50, the youths which leaves the elderly who are most vulnerable are risk.

Adebimpe Adebiyi, Director Hospital services, Ministry of Health, informed that the ministry will
be conducting verification of the challenges experienced by isolation and treatment centre in order to strengthen them.

The National Coordinator of PTF, Sani Aliyu condemned the mass gathering witnessed at the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) premises.

He said the restriction on mass gathering applies to all entities weather private or government. Sani noted that the commission have been contacted regarding the non compliance to the non pharmaceutical intervention observed in its Premises across the country.

“The challenge they are having is with regards to the Crowd they have outside their Premises and that challenge needs to be addressed and we are working with them.”

Also speaking the Chairman of PTF, Boss Mustapha, appealed to Nigerians to adhere to guidelines and measures given by NIMC regarding the National Identity Number registration.

“Our appeal is that people read and comply with the instructions given by NIMC. You should have no business going there if you are not scheduled for a visit. you shouldn’t assembly there because you would only delay the processes and time.”