Nigeria is set to receive 3,930,910 doses of Pfizer-N Tech COVID-19 vaccine from the COVAX facility next month donated by the United States. Another 3,577,860 doses of Pfizer-Bio-N Tech vaccine is expected in the third quarter of this year from the COVAX facility with 29,850,000 doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccine donated by the African Union Commission.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has confirmed a case of SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant, also known as lineage B.1.617.2 in the country. The NCDC in a statement said the variant was detected in a traveller to Nigeria, following the routine travel test required of all international travellers and genomic sequencing at the NCDC National Reference Laboratory, Abuja. The delta variant has been described by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as the most transmissible variant, and also is responsible for the spike in about 98 countries across the world where it has been reported.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) have warned that billions of people around the world would be unable to access clean household drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene services in 2030 if the progress rate does not improve. According to a Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) report titled “Progress on household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene 2000 – 2020”, one in four people lacked safe drinking water in their homes with nearly half of the globe suffering from safely managed sanitation.
The Lassa fever vaccine clinical trials are set to commence in Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Liberia, the Public Affairs of the United States Diplomatic Mission to Nigeria said. The disclosure was made in a statement on Monday, saying the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trial Partnership and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations has awarded €22.8 million to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative to conduct a Phase IIB trial of the IAVI Lassa fever vaccine candidate among adults and children in Nigeria, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia has donated medical equipment worth $1 million to Nigeria in a bid to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. In a statement, the Director Media and Public Relations of the Federal Ministry of Health, Olusegun Adetola said the handover of the medical equipment donated to the Nigerian Government took place at the Saudi-Arabia Embassy in Abuja on Tuesday. The donated medical equipment includes 23 ventilators, surgical sterile gowns, non-sterile gowns, surgical masks, and nitrile gloves.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has proposed about three countries in Africa to be considered for the installation of local production capacity for the COVID-19 vaccines, improved availability of the vaccine. This was made known by the WHO Country representative, Dr. Kazadi Mulombo during a joint press briefing on updates on COVID-19 vaccination with the WHO, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
