National Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force on
Control of COVID-19, Dr. Sani Aliyu told ARISE News yesterday that there is a
presidential directive to ensure that the vaccines are sourced as timely as
possible.
“In terms of when it is going to be available in the
country, there is a lot of work going on with National Primary Healthcare
Development Agency (NPHCDA) and the president directed the Presidential Task
Force on Control of COVID-19 last two weeks to get involved in the nitty gritty
of the efforts to ensure that the vaccines come in a timely manner.
“We expect the first batch of vaccines to come in possibly
towards the end of January.
“The control of the pandemic will rely not only on full
compliance of the non-pharmaceutical interventions but also the availability
and acceptance of vaccination programmes.
“We cannot allow ourselves to become a pariah nation, we
don’t really have a choice when it comes to vaccines, we have to vaccinate our
public especially those that are vulnerable the elderly, those that are most
likely to have severe illness and we will definitely not be left behind as a
country,” Aliyu stated.
According to him, Nigeria cannot afford to be a pariah
nation in the race to obtain vaccines, adding that a lot of work is ongoing
with the National Primary Healthcare Development agency and the Global Vaccine
Alliance Initiative (Gavi) with whom the federal government has signed an
agreement for access to the vaccines.
With the vaccines, the federal government is targeting to
vaccinate 20 per cent of the population in the first instance against the virus
which has killed about 1,400 Nigerians and infected about 89,163 persons since
the pandemic first hit the country in on February 27, 2020.
President Muhammadu Buhari had during the presentation of
the end of the year report by PTF, tasked the body to coordinate the process
for planning and strategy for the delivery and administration of the vaccines
using the existing health structures that have worked in the past in vaccine
administration.
A committee has already been set up by the government to
select the vaccine most appropriate for the country from the existing vaccines
against the virus considering that different temperatures are required to
protect vaccines.
More than 85 million COVID-19 cases have been reported
globally with the US, India and Brazil remaining the worst-hit countries in
terms of the number of cases. Also Europe is in the grip of a devastating
second wave of infections.