Health Minister Describes COVID Vaccine As a Game Changer

The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, has described the COVID-19 vaccine as a “game changer”.

At a press briefing in Abuja on Thursday, the minister said Nigeria has been lucky so far, warning that “we must not stretch our luck. We must continue with our non-pharmaceutical measures.

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“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. Vaccines are an addition to the existing response, not a replacement,” he said.

The Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Faisal Shuaib, also spoke on the plan to roll out the vaccines.

He said President Muhammadu Buhari and other senior officials of the administration would publicly take vaccines to increase public confidence and overcome vaccine hesitancy.

Dr Shuaib said study revealed that only about 50% of Nigerians say they would definitely take the vaccines, thus making it necessary to demonstrate that it is safe and effective.

He said after the launch of the rollout of the vaccines on Friday at the National Hospital, Abuja, priority would be given to frontline workers in the health sector.

He added that the second group would be the elderly and the vulnerable before people who have no propensity to get the infection would be considered.

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

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

She said: “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.”

She however said that no arrest had been made.