COVID-19 Pandemic Still With Us, Hard To Predict — SGF

THE Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF, ) Mr. Boss Mustapha, has said that the COVID-19 pandemic is still around as shown in Nigeria and other countries across the globe and the pattern it will take is hard to predict.

According to a NAN report, Mustapha, who is also the Chairman, Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) on COVID-19, said this when he gave a keynote address on ‘Safeguarding Nigeria against the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Journey So Far,’ at a two-day Primary Health Care Summit on Friday in Abuja.

NAN reports that the PHC summit, organised by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) has ‘Re-Imagining PHC in Nigeria’ as its theme.

It aims to galvanise stakeholders to invest and collaboratively implement a PHC revitalisation strategy for the country.

The summit is also geared toward launching a historic programme to transform the under-resourced, weak PHC system by leveraging the private sector, international agencies, and government collaboration.

The SGF, who cautioned Nigerians against letting their guard down, added that sustained observance of the COVID-19 protocols would enable the country to conquer the variants.

He added that there had been good progress on the country’s vaccination campaign rate.

He said “while we continue to embrace and implement globally adopted prevention strategies, we advise that you continue to observe the protocols for prevention of the spread of COVID-19, namely hand washing, social distancing, wearing of nose masks (especially in public), among others.

Mustapha added that amidst the global shortage of the COVID–19 vaccines, the vaccination drive in the country progressed in different phases, expanding the eligible target population to include all adults aged 18 years and above.

He said “till this day, Nigeria recorded 255,092 confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection and 3,142 deaths. When compared with global figures, Nigeria has been able to curtail the spread and detrimental effect of this deadly virus in spite of the overarching challenge of a weakened health system.

“Over 67.9 million doses of four types of COVID-19 vaccines (AstraZeneca, Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson) were received through support of the COVAX facility and governments of other countries and we are expecting close to 47 million doses by the end of 2022.