COVID-19: We welcome proposals for local vaccines —Nigerian Govt

The Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, said Thursday Nigeria would not rule out a homegrown vaccine for the prevention and cure of COVID-19.

Ehanire, who fielded questions from journalists at the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 daily press briefing in Abuja, said the Federal Government would welcome any proposal on locally manufactured vaccines for COVID-19.

He said:” Nigerians living in an area that has clusters of people who have the disease are eligible to be tested for the virus.

“The structure of the response, is: TEST, TREAT, TRACE AND ISOLATE for COVID19, the idea is to test people based on set criteria.

“These are travel history, contacts or symptoms or clusters for the best prospects of high yield, place those with a positive test in treatment and isolation, trace all their contacts and quarantine them for 14 days.

“Today NCDC laboratories have the capacity to test 1,500 samples per day in 13 laboratories across the country. However, we are testing on average of about 600 samples per day because that is all the samples collected and sent for testing.

“Factors implicated in the process may include surveillance, sample collection, and mode of transportation, which can be improved to increase operational efficiency. This is where a little investment can help.”

According to him, the results of such intensification of efforts can be seen especially in Lagos where improved logistic management increased sample collection and significantly reduced turn-around time.

The minister added that efforts are ongoing to further increase the testing capacity and accredit more laboratories.