As the south Asian country buckles under a deadly second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and hospitals in the country running out of beds and oxygen supplies, an average of 3,500 deaths and 400,000 infections are being recorded daily.

The Indian COVID-19 strain, B.1.617, has also been identified in Nigeria, according to a notification dated April 25, 2021, sent by Professor Christian Hapi of the African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases, Redeemers University, Ede, Osun State to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.

“We have found five sequences of the India B.1.617 in the country, specifically in Edo and Osun states,” the notification read.

Although research showed that so far, the strain had not displayed the same kind of viciousness as in India, the Federal Government on Monday restricted gatherings at worship centres and banned nightclubs, among others.

Sunday NAN also on May 9 reported that the World Health Organisation stated that the B.1.351 variant of the coronavirus, first found in South Africa, was spreading in 23 African countries, including three of Nigeria’s neighbours, Ghana, Togo, and Cameroon.

With regards to this, the Nigerian Medical Association and some health experts had called for caution among Nigerians and the Federal Government, pending when the majority of the population would be vaccinated.

“For delivery date of AVAT (Johnson & Johnson vaccines), you can be sure that it will be at the beginning of the third quarter, which will be at the end of July or beginning of August. We are working hard to see if we can accelerate that delivery timeline, but nothing is really guaranteed,” he said.

He called on all African nations to submit their formal requests for the purchase of the vaccines.

Nkengasong said Africa was expected to get at least 220 million doses through the AVAT facility, adding that the Afreximbank had agreed to underwrite $2bn.

“We as the African Union have secured signed contracts for up to 220 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine with an option of increasing that to about 400 million. It is my strong appeal to all member states that they should go through the AVAT platform and secure these vaccines,” the CDC director said.

Nkengasong said he hoped that more vaccines would be able to arrive through the COVAX facility driven by the World Health Organisation.

He, however, noted that the Indian situation had made things unpredictable.

NAFDAC has approved J&J –Health minister

Meanwhile, the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, said Nigeria got a bit above four million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and that the initial plan was to vaccinate four million Nigerians with the first dose until the second batch arrived.

However, he said when there was a delay in supply, Nigeria decided to halt the vaccination halfway so that all those who had taken their first doses could get a second one.

Ehanire also said the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control had approved the Johnson & Johnson vaccine along with the Pfizer vaccine.

“Initially, only the AstraZeneca vaccine passed the test of our regulatory agency, and just recently, Johnson & Johnson, and Pfizer,” the minister said.

Ehanire, however, blamed vaccine manufacturers for failing to provide dossiers that would aid in the approval of vaccines.

He said, “On the whole, the experience was not very good because we didn’t get information directly from the manufacturers themselves. In some cases, we had to ask the ambassadors here. For example, we asked the Indian High Commission to support us in getting the dossiers.

“In some cases, we had to ask the Africa CDC if they could support us and get us the dossiers so that we could start even before the vaccines came here so we could start work on them. That part was a challenge and there are some vaccines that are being used from the beginning which till today we have not received any dossier to begin our regulatory process.

“So, there can be a lot more improvement if we share information on the dossiers.”

COVID-19 to be ‘far more deadly’ this year –WHO chief

The WHO on Friday said the COVID-19 pandemic’s second year was on track to be its deadliest, as he urged rich countries to donate vaccines rather than jab children.

“We’re on track for the second year of this pandemic to be far more deadly than the first,” the World Health Organisation’s Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus told a press conference, adding, “I understand why some countries want to vaccinate their children and adolescents, but right now, I urge them to reconsider and tostead donate vaccines to COVAX.”

The curfew will last between 8 pm and 6 am daily, according to a statement on Friday signed by the state Commissioner for Information, Orientation, and Strategy, Mr Ayibaina Duba.

Duba said the curfew would take effect from Sunday, May 16, until further notice.

Virologist justifies priority given to COVID-19 above other diseases

Meanwhile, Professor of Virology, Prof David Olaleye, on Friday, justified the priority given to COVID-19 above other diseases in Nigeria.

He said it would not have been wise to ignore a new disease for diseases that were already being managed.

Olaleye of the Department of Virology, University of Ibadan, spoke in an interview with one of our correspondents.

He said, “This (COVID-19) came as a pandemic and for pandemics, a lot of time, you only know when they are starting, you don’t know when they are going to stop.

“When a pandemic starts, you cannot say this is what the magnitude is going to be. So, if we say we have malaria or measles and then we leave this (COVID-19) unattended, it will add to the problem on the ground and we don’t want that.

“The problems of those major diseases are already known to us and we don’t want to add this COVID to the problems on the ground.”

Olaleye said the approach taken by the government so far in curbing the pandemic had been effective, calling for more support by the citizens.

source: Punch