The Standards Organisation of Nigeria, Adamawa chapter, has advised manufacturers of hand sanitisers to always use the right chemicals for their products in the fight against second wave of COVID-19.

The Adamawa coordinator of the organisation, Mr. Sunday Galadima, gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Thursday in Yola. He said that failure to use the right chemicals may lead to harming people in different ways.

Ahead of the arrival of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines into the country within the next few weeks, the Federal Government has set a condition that states must fulfil before releasing the vaccines to them.

The Director, Logistics and Health Commodities, National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Hajia Kubura Daradara, said on Friday during a webinar hosted by the agency that government would not release the vaccines to the states until the states are ready to administer them.

The Nigeria Governors’ Forum says Nigeria is speeding up efforts at coming out with a locally manufactured vaccine to tackle the spread of COVID-19 in the country. The NGF chairman and Governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, disclosed this on Friday, after meeting with the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), in Aso Rock Villa, Abuja.

Fayemi said Buhari agreed that beyond shopping for and acquiring vaccines for Nigerians, the ultimate target is to produce the vaccine locally. He noted that already, there is a partnership with a manufacturer to that effect.

The World Health Organisation on Friday says people with a history of a severe allergic reaction to any component of the COVID-19 vaccine and most pregnant women should not to take the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.

WHO also said that children under the age of 16 and international travellers who are not part of a prioritised group should also not take the vaccine. The WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization issued the policy recommendations for the rollout of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, the first approved for emergency use.

Indications have emerged that Kano, Lagos, Katsina and Kaduna states have the highest number of health workers that would receive the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines when the first batch arrive in the country in next few weeks.

The Director, Disease Control and Immunisation, NPHCDA, Dr Bassey Okposen, in his presentation, in a chart during the Friday webinar revealed the number of health workers in each state to be prioritised for vaccination once the vaccines arrive.

The Minister of State for Health, Dr. Olorunnimbe Mamora, has blamed private health facilities in the country for the death of many COVID-19 patients. Mamora, while speaking at the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 briefing on Monday, accused private facilities of referring patients to approved treatment centres late.

The minister said, “The report that many of those who died reported late for treatment at the approved centres because they were referred late from private facilities is alarming. “We, therefore, once again seize this opportunity to urge healthcare practitioners to promptly send all suspected cases for testing and when positive, refer them to isolation centres for treatment.

Director-General of the World Health Organisation, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has restated the urgent need for a global and equitable COVID-19 vaccination campaign. 

According to the WHO chief, vaccinating equitably would help to curtail the mutation of the virus and the emergence of new variants. Recall that the WHO alerted over the weekend of a new COVID-19 variant identified in Japan. 

The Lagos State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Gbenga Omotoso, on Tuesday, disclosed that the state generates 400 cylinders of oxygen for the care of COVID-19 patients. Omotoso, in an interview with our correspondent, said the amount was not enough for patients requiring oxygen in the state.

He added that the state recently installed an oxygen plant at the Infectious Disease Hospital where 60 cylinders of oxygen were being generated daily. He said, “The state generates 400 cylinders daily; the 400 cylinders are not enough at the moment because the pandemic is getting out of hand.

A medical doctor who works in one of the isolation centres in Lagos has suggested high  number of COVID-19 deaths at the treatment centre. The doctor, Bella Nifemi, works with the Infectious Diseases Hospital, Yaba, and said this via her Twitter handle @drbellanifemi.

While advising Lagos Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on how to deal with those who were recently arrested for breaching COVID-19 protocols in the state, Nifemi said they should be taken to the IDH to help in “pushing oxygen cylinders into the wards and assist with moving bodies to morgue.”

A renowned professor of virology and former Vice-Chancellor of the Redeemer’s University Nigeria, Oyewole Tomori, says the COVID-19 vaccine is not the solution to the viral infection and that vaccination does not protect anyone from exposure and infection.

Tomori said rather, the vaccine will prevent the infection from becoming a disease. Speaking on Channels TV on Monday night, Tomori said, “Vaccine is not the solution to the problem. If you get a vaccine, you will develop immunity, no doubt, if you do well.