An Abuja based Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Save Our Heritage Initiative (SOHI), says national acceptance of COVID-19 vaccine will lead to a decline in the spread of the pandemic.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the group, Ms May Ikokwu, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Sunday.
Ikokwu called on Nigerians to avail themselves for immunization to drastically reduce community spread especially the deadly second phase.
She explained that the vaccine had reduced the spread of the pandemic in other climes as the United Kingdom and United States of America.
“In a recent report, the UK claimed that they have observed 82 per cent decline in deaths for those who have received the vaccine, including those with underlying ailments, cases of new infections have also reduced.
“So also in the USA, the number of new infections and deaths have decreased. It would be good if every adult gets the vaccine, so that life can return to normal,” she said.
Ikokwu, who expressed hope that COVID-19 pandemic would be defeated, reiterated call for national immunization and strict compliance to the safety protocols.
”The vaccine will help check infection and normalise the situation, so I encourage all to take it,”she said
The SOHI boss, however, expressed excitement at the reports that Nigeria was developing her own vaccines that were going through several stages of testing.
Ikokwu added: “If successful, our own homegrown COVID-19 vaccines would reduce our dependence on vaccines sourced from overseas and increase the availability and reach of the vaccines.”
NAN reports that Faisal Shuaib, Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, said that they had actually developed a comprehensively deployment plan on how to deploy these vaccines in phases. (NAN)
