Vaccines Archives - Naija Premium Gist

Nigeria ready for local production of vaccines – NAFDAC

November 23, 2021 No Comments

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) said on Monday that Nigeria has met all the World Health Organisation (WHO) requirements on production of vaccines.

The NAFDAC Director-General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, who disclosed this at a joint press conference with the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, in Abuja, said the country has met the WHO Maturity Level Three recommendations on local production of vaccines.

She revealed that Maturity Level Three is a compulsory status for any country that wanted to go into vaccine production and other activities.

Adeyeye noted that WHO made 868 recommendations to Nigeria and they had been met.

She said: “The journey for the feat started in January 2018, and by October 2021, Nigeria through the efforts of NAFDAC with support from Federal Ministry of Health, has met the recommendations and it’s expected that soon, WHO officials would give approval for Nigeria to begin the production of vaccine.

“Having met all the criteria, we are waiting for the WHO officials to physically visit the headquarters of NAFDAC to assess the requirements before a final decision on Maturity Level Three status. What it simply means is that Nigeria is closer to manufacturing vaccines, and the success was as a result of a change in culture and way of doing things.

“We have expanded our drugs laboratory in Yaba, and our vaccine laboratory is also being built in Oshodi, both in Lagos, and it will be completed soon.

“The rules that apply to medical sciences several years ago may not be relevant in today’s world or must have been modified.

“Undoubtedly, we produced yellow fever and other vaccines in Nigeria years ago, but the rules have changed. The rule is that any country that wants to produce vaccines must have a strong regulatory system, and that might be the reason for the many recommendations of NAFDAC.”

World News

CNN sacks three workers for failure to receive COVID-19 vaccination

August 6, 2021 No Comments

The Cable Network News (CNN) has announced the dismissal of three employees for entering its New York headquarters without being vaccinated for protection against the COVID-19 virus.

This was contained in a memo issued on Thursday by the CNN President, Jeff Zucker.

“In the past week, we have been made aware of three employees who were coming to the office unvaccinated,” the memo revealed as reported by LA Times.

“All three have been terminated. Let me be clear — we have a zero-tolerance policy on this. You need to be vaccinated to come to the office. And you need to be vaccinated to work in the field, with other employees, regardless of whether you enter an office or not. Period.”

The names of the dismissed employees were not revealed, according to two staffers at the WarnerMedia unit.

Vaccinated employees have been allowed to return to CNN offices on a voluntary basis. They have used the honor system to confirm their vaccination status through the company’s passcard system and have not been asked to show proof. Zucker said that may change in the weeks ahead.

Zucker also said CNN is delaying a formal return date to the office, located at Hudson Yards on the west side of Manhattan.

Employees were expected to return Sept. 7, but due to the recent surge in COVID-19 cases, largely caused by unvaccinated individuals, the date has been pushed to mid-October.

About a third of CNN’s news personnel are working on-site after more than a year of working remotely because of the pandemic. Employees are allowed to return to the office two weeks after completing the vaccination process.

Politics

Governors to meet over distribution of Covid-19 vaccines

March 4, 2021 No Comments

The governors of the 36 states in Nigeria, under the umbrella of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), will on Thursday, March 4, meet over the COVID-19 vaccines and distribution in the country.

The governors, in a statement issued in Abuja on Wednesday by Mr Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo, the Head, Media and Public Affairs of NGF Secretariat, said the emergency meeting would be held virtually.

“The meeting is of a single-item agenda, which will discuss the delivery of the COVID-19 vaccines and their distribution in the country,” he said.

Bello-Barkindo said the meeting, according to the invitations sent to the governors, would commence at 5 p.m.

Ripples Nigeria had reported that the Federal Government had on Tuesday in Abuja received 3.92 million doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.

The COVID-19 vaccine was shipped into Nigeria via the COVAX Facility, a partnership between CEPI, Gavi, UNICEF, and WHO.

COVAX is co-led by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, WHO, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), working in partnership with UNICEF, the World Bank, Civil Society Organisations, manufacturers, and others.

The federal government had also launched a website to register Nigerians for the vaccination.

Politics

Sultan wants Nigerians to query COVID-19 vaccines before they arrive the country

January 28, 2021 No Comments

The Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar, on Wednesday called on Nigerians to ask questions about COVID-19 vaccines before the government brings them into the country.

According to the Sultan, who spoke at a sensitisation programme on COVID-19 vaccines for Muslim scholars and Imams in Abuja, such questions would help authorities provide answers.

He said: “What we will take away from this interactive session is so important, because it will help us convince the people of the need to take the COVID-19 vaccine or not. I believe we cannot force people to take vaccines.

“For us as Muslims, we know that knowledge is very important, and we know that Islam was founded on knowledge. The vaccines are not yet in Nigeria but it is an opportunity to bring up questions and fears about the vaccines so that the authorities will offer answers and solutions.”

The Sultan, who noted that the coordination and partnership of northern traditional and religious leaders helped to overcome polio, noted that the same partnership would also help with COVID-19.

He said further: “When the Almighty Allah brought me to this position in 2006, we had very serious cases of polio in Nigeria.

“The then Minister of Health, Prof. Babatunde Osotimehin, approached me that he wants to use traditional rulers to sensitise the people. I said, ‘It’s okay… we want to see healthy communities.

“That was how we picked a senior traditional ruler from each of the 19 Northern states and the FCT, and set up the Northern Traditional Rulers Committee on Polio. It was the work of that committee that was able to give us the polio-free certification after 13 years.

“Such is the importance of traditional leaders. But traditional rulers cannot do much without religious leaders. Any monarch who is not close to religious leaders is not a good leader. A collaboration between the traditional and religious institutions gave us the victory over polio not coercion.”

According to him, the emergence of COVID-19 vaccine was trailed by negative conspiracy theories, stressing that truth and adequate knowledge were necessary to dispel the lies and half-truths.

“People talk of conspiracy theories such as that the COVID-19 vaccine is meant to kill us. But my take is that if a vaccine was meant to kill us, will anybody wait for the COVID-19 vaccine before killing us? We have been consuming soft drinks and other medicines that are imported into the country. If any foreigner wants to kill us, there are more than a million ways to do so.

“The vaccines are free. You are not going to pay for it. But to take it is your choice. How? You have to find out the truth about the vaccine yourself. How do you find out the truth? By seeking knowledge. How? By communicating with the right people”, he said.

In his own contribution at the event, the Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Faisal Shuaib, revealed that any COVID-19 vaccine that would be brought into the country must be certified by the National Agency for Food Administration and Control (NAFDAC) before administration.