Category: CORONAVIRUS

The ‘Operation Count Me in 4 Million Lagosians Vaccinated against COVID-19’ began at the weekend with the roll out of vaccination at the Abule Nla Primary Health Centre, Ebute-Metta, Lagos Mainland Local Government Area.

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu last week launched the campaign to ensure four million residents are vaccinated before the yuletide as part of strategies to ward off a fourth wave of the pandemic. Residents are to be inoculated with the AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines.

Chairman of the Lagos State Primary Healthcare Board (LSPHCB) Prof. Akin Oshibogun dispelled rumours about the vaccine, describing it as “safe, efficacious and effective”.

According to him, follow-ups have been sustained on vaccinated persons in the last four months and the results have proven rumours of blood clot, magnetisation, sudden death, among others, wrong. He explained that the alleged body pains, cold and soreness of vaccination site are natural body reactions to the vaccine.

Oshibogun, therefore, described the roving rumours as “tales by the moonlight”.

He said: “It is very important that we protect ourselves against this virus. We have been fortunate that fatality rate is not as it is in Europe and America, but the virus is still evolving because it’s still mutating. The only way to break a pandemic is to use a vaccine and drug for treatment, but vaccines are likely to be cheaper than drug. Now, we have the vaccine, it’s better for us to take advantage of its availability. We are also collecting data locally to see how safe the vaccines are, and we can prove they are safe.

Read Also: Pandemic forced Nigeria to improve on healthcare system, says UNIUYO CMD

“We want to spread the message that people need to protect themselves because the virus is still evolving and we don’t know what variants are likely to come up.”

Permanent Secretary of the LSPHCB Dr. Ibrahim Mustafa said the roll out is a strategic step towards mitigating the effects of COVID-19 with enlightenment campaigns.

According to him, the goal is to triple the efforts on campaigns so that more than 60 per cent of Lagosians can be vaccinated.

He said: “Today’s event is to mark another phase of the vaccination exercise in Lagos State. Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has mandated us to vaccinate more than four million Lagosians by December 25 and we are working on this mandate.

“The board will work with religious leaders to convince and urge the people to be vaccinated. It has also been proven beyond reasonable doubt that the vaccine is safe and effective in protecting against the virus.

Field Presence Team Leader of the World Health Organisation (WHO) (Lagos Liaison Office), Dr. Ahmed Khedr, praised the government’s approach towards containing the spread of the virus.

According to him, though the state has remained the epicentre in Nigeria, the firm approach in case management has become a prototype for other states to follow.

Chief Medical Director of the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital Prof. Ememabasi Bassey said yesterday that Covid-19 forced Nigeria to improve on its healthcare system.

Prof. Bassey said the lockdown resulting from the pandemic prevented highly placed Nigerians from seeking medical treatment abroad, thereby compelling the federal and state governments to develop their health facilities.

Speaking with reporters in Uyo, the CMD noted that critical surgeries hitherto conducted outside the country were successfully done within, pointing out that Nigeria is blessed with talented medical experts.

Read Also: Cross River: tax reliefs granted in heat of pandemic has expired

He said the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration has made more releases and investment in medical infrastructure than any other regime in recent decades.

To confirm this, Prof. Bassey, who conducted reporters round the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital, acknowledged receipt of the sum of N859 million funds released by the Federal Government to execute key COVID-19 intervention projects and programmes.

“The present federal government has invested in medical infrastructure than any other in the last couple of decades. For instance,   during the pandemic last year, the Federal Government released funds to the management of the hospital, Uyo open a modular testing laboratory and other projects that could help in combating the virus.”

The Federal Government has directed that every ward in each local government area across the country must provide at least one COVID-19 vaccination site.

This move, according to the government, is to decentralise the vaccination process and ensure that more Nigerians have easy access to the vaccines, thereby increasing uptake and fostering protection of the citizens.

It added that asides ramping up COVID-19 vaccination coverage, about 10,000 centres, including federal, corporate and private health facilities will be providing COVID-19 vaccination services free of charge.

Decrying the low intake of COVID-19 vaccination, it urged Nigerians to ensure that they get vaccinated to curb the spread of the virus. According to it, there are over nine million COVID-19 vaccines of three brands currently available to Nigerians across the country.

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Currently, 4.8 per cent of eligible Nigerians have received their first dose, while 2.4 per cent are fully vaccinated.

The Director of Research and Statistics at the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Abdullahi Garba, during a briefing on COVID-19 and vaccination updates by the Federal Ministry of Health in Abuja, said: “So far, we have vaccinated 5,348,573 eligible Nigerians with their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine,  of which we are able to immunise 2,681,129 with two doses of COVID-19 vaccine.

“Therefore, of the 112 million Nigerians targeted for the vaccination throughout the rollout cycle, we are only able to cover 4.8 per cent with one dose, and only 2.4 percent of eligible Nigerians with two doses. This is not enough. We must as Nigerians fast-track the rollout of vaccines.”

Latest epidemiological report from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) showed that in one week – between October 11 to October 17, 2021, about 81 Nigerians have died from the ravaging COVID-19 disease, totalling 2,756 to 2,837 deaths.

The death toll has continued to increase, while new confirmed cases continue to reduce and averages about 250 cases, with the total number of confirmed cases of infection in the last one week being 1,320 cases; from 207,978 to 209,298.

Investigation by The Nation revealed that asides increasing death rate, recoveries increased by 37 percent, from 1,107 two weeks ago to 1,517 recoveries as of October 17, 2021.

Read Also: COVID-19 kills 20 Nigerians in five days – NCDC Report

But, Lagos State Commissioner for Health Prof. Akin Abayomi yesterday claimed that the state recorded 288 deaths in the ongoing COVID-19 third wave.

He also said the state had conducted 783,404 valid COVID-19 sample tests since the inception of the pandemic.

Abayomi stated these yesterday on his Facebook account @Profakinolaabayomi, while giving the state’s COVID-19 update for Oct. 15.

The commissioner said 73 per cent of the tests were conducted by accredited private COVID-19 laboratories, while 27 per cent were done by government owned laboratories.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) and United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC) have hailed the exemplary leadership of the outgoing Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu.

They noted that the predicted doom for Nigeria with respect to the spread of the COVID-19 in the wake of the pandemic by the global community did not happen because of the great works and leadership of Ihekweazu and his team.

Ihekweazu was appointed Assistant Director General of the WHO. In his new position, he will head the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence in Berlin, Germany, and lead the work on strengthening pandemic and epidemic intelligence globally.

The University of Nigeria alumnus is expected to resume his new position by November 1, 2021. Dr Ifedayo Adetifa will immediately resume his position officially as the Director General of the NCDC.

In his remarks during the official handing over of Ihekweazu to Adetifa yesterday in Abuja, the WHO Country Representative, Dr. Kazardi Mulombo, said: “We express our deepest appreciation for the partnership between the WHO and the NCDC before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. We hail Dr. Ihekweazu’s effort in the fight against the pandemic.

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“The doom predicted for Nigeria didn’t happen because of the exemplary performance of Ihekweazu, hence his appointment as Assistant Director General of the WHO. Although it is a loss to Nigeria, but a gain to Africa.

“Achieving global health security has become complex because people are now interdependent on each other for trade, travel etc.

“COVID-19 continues to have large scale outbreaks. Nigeria appears to have escaped and averted a catastrophe because of the response efforts of NCDC. We congratulate NCDC’s efforts in detecting, preventing and controlling disease outbreaks. It has also shown leadership in its response coordination. Nigeria must, therefore, continue to invest in health security.”

Also speaking, the Country Director for U.S. CDC, Dr. Mary Boyd, added: “NCDC’s effort in surveillance, detection, and prevention of epidemics, especially the COVID-19 pandemic under the leadership of Dr. Ihekweazu made Nigeria not to experience a catastrophe owing to its population, how closely people gather and live, etc.”

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has stated that Nigeria and the World Bank are collaborating to raise $30 million to finance a vaccine plant.

Osinbajo spoke yesterday in Abuja at the International Conference on Health Access and Socio-Economic Development Beyond Covid-19: The First Multi-sectoral Approach to Solution Finding.

The conference was orgainsed by the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD).

He said the global trend in health had made it critical for Nigeria to establish its own vaccine production facilities.

“Nigeria is in talks with the World Bank’s private lending arm and other lenders to raise about $30 million to help finance a vaccine plant.

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“Bio-vaccine Nigeria Limited is chaired by Prof. Oyewale Tomori; 49 per cent of the company is owned by the Nigerian government with the balance held by May and Baker Nigeria PLC and they have plans to begin construction of a plant.

“I believe in the first quarter of next year; the plant, which is supposed to be located in Ota, Ogun State, will initially, we are told, fill and finish, which I’m also told, means importing the raw materials for the vaccines and then packaging them for distribution.

“Some South African companies are already involved in doing exactly that; I believe Aspen Pharmacare and Belvac Institute operate similar facilities.”

“Full manufacturing, we are told, is expected to follow in the coming months or years; I am not entirely certain, when.

“So, it is evident that the way forward is more funding for healthcare and research for innovators to develop solutions in pharmaceuticals and medical consumables.’’

The vice president said by the discussion he had with NIPRD Director-General, Dr. Obi Adigwe, he was inspired by the potential and the kind of support that the pharmaceutical industry and research agencies would require.

Edo State has recorded the death of another unvaccinated person.

The Godwin Obaseki’s administration is intensifying the rollout of the second phase of COVID-19 vaccines across the state’s 18 local government areas, as part of ramped-up efforts to achieve herd immunity against the virus and contain the third wave of the pandemic.

Head of Edo’s COVID-19 Case Management, Dr. Osagie Ebomwonyi, stated these yesterday at the daily virtual meeting of the state’s COVID-19 Taskforce, chaired by Obaseki.

Ebomwonyi urged Edo residents who had not been inoculated to come out and get vaccinated to remain healthy and protected against the deadly virus.

Read Also: Lagos records two deaths, 68 infections in two days

He said: “Edo, in the last 24 hours, collected 117 samples and recorded 18 new COVID-19 cases, 101 discharges, 361 active cases and one death, with a test positivity rate of 15.4 per cent.

“The mortality is that of an unvaccinated 87-year-old female, reported from the Irrua Specialist Hospital (ISTH). 17 of the new cases were reported at ISTH, with one confirmed from a Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT).

“We have now collected 18,713 samples and confirmed 1,629 cases, 1,177 recoveries, and 91 deaths since the outbreak of the third wave of the pandemic in the state.”

Reiterating the need for more residents to get vaccinated, the COVID-19 case manager added: “As the government intensifies the vaccination of residents, among other measures to contain the pandemic and ensure the health of citizens, we urge everyone to complement the government’s efforts by getting vaccinated and comply with all non-pharmaceutical intervention, to contain the virus, because it is the safest way to defeat the pandemic.”

Executive Chairman of Cross River State Internal Revenue Service (CRIRS) Mr. Akpanke Ogar has announced the expiration of the structured tax relief regime for businesses in the state.

The tax relief was granted tax-payers by the state government last year in response to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic last year.

The state internal revenue boss spoke in Calabar at the opening of a two-day workshop on 2021 Annual Tax Week in Calabar, with the theme, “Understanding Emerging Issues in the Nigeria Tax Environment: Enhancing Voluntary Compliance”.

He explained that the tax relief had expired in December 2020, explaining that there were various incentives, which the state government granted to cushion the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the people and businesses.

“Now, the economy has started picking up and so, the special relief has expired and we are now aiming to sensitise and enlighten tax payers on their rights and for them to know the taxes and levies accruable to the state and to the local governments.

“For instance, if you are in transportation business, you get to know the taxes you are due to pay to the state government and the ones for the local government.  So, it’s a workshop to know what they are supposed to pay and to know their rights and obligations.”

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Ogar said people have to get back paying taxes as COVID has eased up, adding that there was no plan to increase taxes in the state even though the state government lost revenue in billions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He added: “Rather we are trying to expand the tax base by getting more payers into the tax net. Our focused is sensitising people on the need to pay taxes. That is part of the partnership we have with the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria.”

He said out of population of over three million, the revenue office projects that there may be about 1.5 million persons that are economically active and should be under the tax net. But what is currently under the tax net in the state is about 500,000 tax payers.

“So, our aim is to increase the number in the tax net, not increment of taxes.”

Also speaking, the National President of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN), Mr. Adesina Adedayo, who was represented by Samuel Agbeluyi q, the institute’s Vice President as well as the Cross River State chapter chairman, Comrade Akpa Ogon, noted that the CITN has been interacting and consulting with the tax administrators and consultants towards improving the low level of voluntary compliance in tax payment to grow the tax revenue.

They expressed pleasure to be in partnership with the state government and reiterated that there is need for people to voluntarily comply with tax law policies and requirements.