The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 revealed on Monday that COVID-19 vaccines could only be made available to countries beginning from the second half of 2021.
The PTF Chairman, Boss Mustapha, made this known on Monday, during the regular national briefing on COVID-19.
“What the world still awaits is the arrival of an effective vaccine. The PTF updated you last week about the progress made with candidate vaccines and the phases of the trials.
“We also assured you that Nigeria will not be left out when eventually access is needed for a safe and effective vaccine certified by global public health authorities.
“Given this timeline, however, we do not expect vaccines to be available for countries till the second half of 2021.
“What this means is that we need to, more than ever before, adhere to the prescribed NPIs and diligently avoid contracting the virus,” he said.
Mustapha who acknowledged that the numbers coming out of Africa revealed that there was a flattening of the curve in the African region, further disclosed that the World Health Organisation was working in collaboration with the Africa Centre for Disease Control to launch a network of laboratories dedicated to genetic sequencing.
He explained that this would help to understand the evolution of the pandemic and how SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes COVID-19, is spreading.
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