Covid-19 vaccine: Nigerians risk global travel ban, Senate warns, NMA allays fears
The Senate on Thursday warned that other countries could impose travel ban on Nigerians, if the Federal Government failed to administer Covid-19 vaccines to its citizens.
The warning was contained in a motion moved at plenary by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Ibrahim Oloriegbe, who said Covod-19 vaccines promised the country by Global Alliance for Vaccine Initiative would not be enough.
The motion, which was adopted by the Senate, was titled, “urgent need for Nigeria to obtain and administer Covid-19 vaccines to its citizens”.
But in his motion, Oloriegbe lamented that apart from the pledge by the global organization, Nigeria had not produced a plan for the procurement, distribution and administration of the vaccines to Nigerians.
He, therefore said, to avoid a global travel ban on Nigerians, the federal government should make budgetary provisions to procure and administer Covid-19 vaccines.
The Senator also expressed concern that compliance with Covid-19 preventive measures such as hand washing, wearing of face masks and social distancing had diminished.
Oloriegbe said that while some countries had approved vaccines for Covid-19 and were administering the vaccine to their citizens, many others had completed plans on the procurement, distribution and administration of the vaccines to their citizens.
He said Nigeria had no plan for the procurement, distribution and administration of the vaccine.
He said, “This support will cover the cost of the vaccine without taking care of logistics requirement for distribution and administration”.
He said that despite the change in the epidemiology trends of the disease, the financial plan developed by the country and World Bank in April 2020 to fund the response to the pandemic was still being implemented without taking due cognizance to the changes by re-allocating the funds to vaccine procurement.