FG to focus on procurement of Covid-19 vaccine in first quarter 2021

The Federal Government has said that the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on Covid-19 will focus on the procurement of vaccines in the first quarter of 2021.

This disclosure was made by the Minister of State for Health, Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora, at the daily briefing of the task force on Tuesday, December 29, 2020, in Abuja.

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According to a report from News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the Minister pointed out that Covid-19 vaccine would be subjected to the regulation of the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration (NAFDAC), and is going to be bought from any available point of sale or country.

READ: FG plans to purchase vaccines for N400 billion – Health Minister

What the Minister of State for Health is saying

While giving a breakdown of the number of cases for the country, Mamora said,

• The total number of samples of people tested for Covid-19 in the country is 937,712; number of confirmed cases is 84,811; number of active cases is 12,190; number of discharged cases to date is 71,357 and number of deaths recorded till date is 1,264.
• This brings the fatality cases to 1.49%, which he said is evidence of scaled-up activity and quality of care at isolation centres despite the increasing number of active cases and morbidity.

READ: ECOWAS CDC confirms 214,886 new Covid-19 cases, Nigeria and 2 others top with 67.8%

Mamora said,

• “All the federal tertiary hospitals that obviously run levels 2 & 3 isolation centres have been directed to improve/scale-up Infection Prevention and Control measures in order to improve on treatment outcomes and enhance the safety of the frontline health personnel. This is coming at the backdrop of the recent upsurge in the affected health workers and the unfortunate demise of some. The case management team has continued to advocate the presence of psychosocial support for both patients and health workers. This is necessary because of the fatigue and consequential apathy associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.”

READ: Covid-19: Deaths of frontline workers particularly sad – Buhari

What this means

The focus by the Federal Government on the procurement of the Covid-19 vaccine means that the number of active cases of the virus will reduce, in addition to that of the fatality figures.

This will also help to stabilize the growth of the pandemic across the country, especially against the backdrop of a spike in the number of Covid-19 confirmed cases.