FG will not force anyone to take COVID-19 vaccine – Minister

• WHO reaffirms support for AstraZeneca

Minister of State for Health, Olorunnibe Mamora, has said the Federal Government will not force anyone to take the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

This came as the World Health Organisation urged countries to keep using AstraZeneca vaccine, noting that the benefits outweigh the risks.

Mamora spoke with journalists on Friday shortly after he inaugurated some projects at the Federal Medical Centre, Asaba in Delta State.

He added that the FG could only appeal to those not willing to take the vaccine in their best interest.

The minister also spoke on why Kogi was yet to take delivery of the vaccine, noting the state lacked its storage facilities.

He said, “Kogi lacks storage facilities for cold chain, security, logistics, and personnel to administer the vaccine.

“Also, let me state clearly here that from the onset, the Federal Government made it clear that it would not force anyone to take the vaccine, but rather, will continue to appeal to people in their own interest.

“Aside from that, in Kogi, one of the reasons the vaccine has not been sent there is because during the #EndSARS crisis, some of their facilities were violently destroyed.

“So, as we speak, Kogi does not even have the facilities for storage to maintain the cold chain. So, that is the reason the state has not been supplied.”

Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Faisal Shuaib, had said the only state which had not received its batch of the vaccine is Kogi.

“All states except Kogi have received their vaccine. Kogi state is yet to receive due to the non-repair of their cold-chain store, coupled with the state’s concerns around the contradictory information about the vaccine,” he had said.

Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello, had said he did not need the vaccine, and would not turn his people to “guinea pigs”.

He had, however, said the state would embark on sensitisation programmes, and administer the vaccine to interested persons.

Meanwhile, Director-General of WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said this on Friday at a virtual news conference after the agency vaccine safety panel met on Tuesday and Friday to review all the available data to respond to concerns over possible side effects of the vaccine.

The WHO findings aligned with that of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) which on Thursday announced that it has come to a “clear scientific conclusion” that the benefits of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine outweigh the risks.

Both the EMA and the WHO investigations came after several countries suspended the vaccine due to reports of blood disorders among some of its recipients.

Following the EMA announcement, Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and Bulgaria were some of the countries that said they will resume administering the vaccine.

Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson on Friday said they had signed deals with the Brazilian health ministry to provide a total of 138 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to the country.

According to a statement, Pfizer will deliver 100 million doses by the end of September.

On Monday, Brazil health ministry said they expected to receive 13.5 million Pfizer doses in the second quarter of 2021 and 86.5 million in the third.

Anvisa, Brazil’s health agency, has not approved emergency use of Johnson & Johnson, but the health ministry said it expected to receive 16.9 million doses from the company by the end of August and another 21.1 million by the end of November.

Brazil has so far approved three vaccines for emergency use during the pandemic, those by Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Sinovac.

Brazil has witnessed a surge in infections and the fatality rate continues to rise. According to data from John Hopkins University, as of March 20, the country has recorded 11.7 million cases of the virus with 287,499 deaths.