Buhari, Osinbajo, other VIPs to receive COVID -19 vaccine Saturday

To out the fear and scepticism about COVID-19 vaccines Nigeria took delivery on Tuesday for treatment and prevention of the virus, President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo will on Saturday receive the COVID-19 vaccine publicly.

This was disclosed by the executive director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Faisal Shuaib, at the second edition of State House weekly briefing at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The second edition focused on how Nigeria has handled the response to the Covid-19 pandemic generally in Nigeria, in the last one year, and especially the National Vaccination Response.

Shuaib said President Buhari and Prof Osinbajo will receive the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine after some frontline health workers get their vaccination on Friday.

Similarly, the chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 (PTF) and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha will also receive his first dose of the vaccine on the same day.

This is even as the Director-General, of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control( NCDC), Dr Chikwe Iheakwazu, has warned that as much as vaccines provide some very important light, the response of testing, surveillance, protecting health workers, investing in national health security and driving risk communications, has to continue.

Director General of National Agency for Food Drugs and Administration Control (NAFDAC), Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, also wanted that Falsified COVID-19 vaccines are already in the global market.

“That’s why NAFDAC is focusing on track-and-trace, to ensure no infiltration of substandard vaccines in supply chain. Traceability is very important; we can trace the vaccines from airport to the patient,” Adeyeye said.

The Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, warned thar as a country, Nigeria has been lucky so far but, “we must not stretch our luck. We must continue with our non-pharmaceutical measures.

“We must look at vaccine as a game changer, but make no mistake that it’s a replacement for everything else. It is an additional strategy,” Ehanire said. “Vaccines are an addition to the existing Response, not a Replacement.”