The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 has urged Nigerians to abide by the PTF guidelines to fight the virus, as vaccine for the virus might take little longer.
The Chairman of the task force and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha said, “Ordinarily, from the little literature I have read on COVID 19, we are not expecting any vaccine to be on the shelves until towards the end of 2021. That is for industries that have perfected the processes of manufacturing of this vaccine.”
The SGF at the press briefing yesterday also challenged the private sector to continue to support government in order to fortify the health system and infrastructure against present and future pandemics.
In the same vein, the SGF urged researchers to come up with home grown drugs and vaccines for the treatment of COVID-19.
He, however, said they must be patient to go through the validation process to establish safety of their drugs and avoid litigation
He said, “Since the recording of the index case, Nigerians have clamoured for research into home grown solutions to COVID-19.
“The PTF, as part of its mandate, has continued to promote research and wishes to repeat its appeal to all our researchers to go through the validation process so as to enable humanity to benefit from their hard work and they in turn benefit from the intellectual property rights associated with such research.”
Responding to a question, the SGF said hotels accommodating Nigerians evacuated from abroad would be decontaminated after 14 days isolation of the returnees before receiving a new batch.
Also, the National Coordinator of the PTF, Dr Sani Aliyu, lamented that large movements of people across state borders were frustrating efforts aimed at containing the pandemic.
He appealed to security agencies to rise to the challenge and stop the trend, except for essential services.
Also at the press briefing, the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, said the Federal Government had signed a deal approving hazard allowances for health workers involved in the COVID-19 containment.
He said the agreement had been forwarded to the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed.
Ehanire noted that the Nigerian Medical Association and other stakeholders were present at signing of the deal, which had also been forwarded to the Ministry of Labour and Employment.
