SAN FRANCISCO, January 12, (THEWILL) – Nigeria cannot produce COVID-19 vaccines at present because of the complex process involved, Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Faisal Shuaib, has said.
Shuaib, who spoke at the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 media briefing on Monday, explained that producing a vaccine requires huge investment and technologies which are not readily available in Nigeria.
“There are questions around why Nigeria is not producing COVID-19 vaccines”, Shuaib said.
“I want to put on record that the process of producing a vaccine is very complex and complicated. It requires massive investment that has not been done for many decades.
“In the 1960s, we used to make yellow fever vaccines in this country. In the 90s, we decided to change analogue ways of making yellow fever vaccines to more recent technologies.
“However, that transfer of technology never happened and that is why we did not continue to make vaccines.”
Meanwhile, Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Chairman, Presidential Task Force (PTF) on Covid-19, Boss Mustapha, said the pilot exercise on the use of rapid diagnostic test-kits would be rolled out in five tertiary health institutions in Abuja and would be done next week.
According to him, the current wave of infections had been swift and virulent just as no one knows how long it would last.
The PTF Chairman lamented that reports from all over the world showed that the COVID-19 pandemic was still wreaking huge havoc on humanity, economies and systems.
He said that factors that had contributed to rise in numbers from late November 2020 included increased local and international travels, business and religious activities, re-opening of schools without strict compliance with COIVID-19 safety measures.
Mustapha faulted the attitude of some state authorities to the management of the disease, saying no state in Nigeria is immune to the pandemic even if reports are not coming out of such states.
The PTF Chairman urged the people to stay away from activities that can expose them to the virus as the nation’s tally crossed 100,000.
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