Ekiti Governor and Chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) Kayode Fayemi has disclosed about 80 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines would soon be available to immunise 40 percent of the population in 2021.
This, he said, was part of measures being put in place to flatten the curve of the virus.
He added another batch of 60 million doses would arrive in 2022, making 140million to be received within the next two years.
Fayemi made this disclosure on Tuesday while delivering a paper: ‘The role of Nigeria’s State Governments in Recovery: Responses to covid-19 linked Challenges” at the Chatham House Africa Programme.
The conference was moderated by Elizabeth Donnelly, Deputy Director and Research Fellow, Africa Programme, Chatham House.
Fayemi said the number of vaccines being expected was released by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) during a meeting of the National Economic Council (NEC) last week.
He however said beyond the government’s procurement of vaccines, the NGF has remained a strong proponent of the utilisation of public-private partnerships in vaccines procurement as a means of closing the gap between what is available and what is necessary to achieve herd immunity.
Fayemi revealed Nigeria has conducted about 1.3 million tests of which 131,242 persons (10 percent) tested positive to the virus with case fatality rate of 1.2 percent.
He said: “As at today, Nigeria has tested 1.3m persons for COVID-19, with 10% (131,242) of these confirmed positive. Compared with the global and Africa’s Case Fatality Rate (CFR) of 2.2% and 2.5% respectively, Nigeria has fared better with a CFR of 1.2%.
“Six States (Lagos, FCT, Plateau, Kaduna, Oyo and Rivers) have contributed 70% of confirmed cases with Lagos the commercial nerve of the country contributing about 40% of the total burden.
“Data indicates that men appear to be disproportionately affected accounting for 69% of the confirmed cases. Most cases occur in people aged 31-40 years.”
The Governor stressed the need to shift the approach from emergency response to strengthening the sustainability of the health system.
He called for increased investment in health security and public health emergencies by state governments with recommendations on the need for each State to establish its own Centre for Disease Control.
The Nation
