Vaccine

Ghana’s president Nana Akufo-Addo on Monday became the world’s first recipient of a coronavirus vaccine from Covax, a global scheme to procure and distribute inoculations for free for poorer countries.

Jamaican sprinter Yohan Blake, has revealed his anti-Coronavirus vaccine stance, claiming he would rather miss the Tokyo 2020 Olympics than get the jab.

More than 20 million people across the United Kingdom have now received their first COVID-19 vaccine shot, data showed on Sunday as the country made more progress with Europe’s fastest vaccination programme

Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo urged citizens of the West African state on Sunday to ignore conspiracy theories surrounding coronavirus vaccines ahead of the launch of its nationwide inoculation campaign against the virus on Tuesday.

South Africa has signed an agreement with Johnson & Johnson to secure 11 million COVID-19 vaccine doses and will ease restrictions due to a decline in new cases, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Sunday.

The Philippines received on Sunday its first batch of COVID-19 vaccine doses in a shipment donated by China, a day before it was due to roll out a national inoculation campaign.

The Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, Most Rev Ignatius Kaigama, is one of Nigeria’s most respected clergymen. He served as the President of Nigerian Bishops Conference (2012-2018), and currently chairs the Episcopal Conference of West African Catholic Bishops.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, on Friday harped on the need for unity among the arms of government to rebuild Lagos.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, on Friday said the lawmakers from Lagos will push “very vigorously” to ensure a huge chunk of the COVID-19 vaccines arriving the country come to the state

Nigeria is expecting its first 4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines next week from the global COVAX vaccine programme for poor and middle-income countries, the head of the World Health Organization mission in Nigeria said on Friday.

The Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, said the federal government would draw a supplementary budget in March to cover the cost of COVID-19 vaccinations.

The Ooni of Ife, Adeyeye Ogunwusi, has unveiled a series of traditional medicines, made from local herbs, that boost the human’s immune system against infectious diseases, including the rampaging Coronavirus (COVID-19).

The African Union is backing calls for drugmakers to waive some intellectual property rights on Covid-19 medicines and vaccines to speed up their rollout to poor countries, the head of its disease control body said on Thursday.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of AstraZeneca, Pascal Soriot, has expressed delight that the first doses of the vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India has been delivered.

The hope of Nigerians having early access to the use of vaccines for the prevention of COVID-19 pandemic appears dashed as federal government has claimed it cannot be specific when the first batch of COVID-19 vaccines will arrive the country.

It pointed out that rising oil exports would be the main growth driver for the country in 2021, while consumer spending and business investment were likely to be subdued because of persistently high inflation and the slow rollout of a Covid-19 vaccine.

The one-dose COVID-19 vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson protects against severe disease and has no serious safety concerns, according to a new analysis published today by the US Food and Drug Administration. The report takes the vaccine one step closer to authorization by the agency, meaning the United States could have a third shot available in a matter of days.

Portugal will send 5% of its COVID-19 vaccine shots to a group of Portuguese-speaking African countries and to the tiny nation of East Timor in the second half of the year, Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva said on Wednesday.

Ghana received Wednesday the first shipment of Covid-19 vaccines from Covax, a global scheme to procure and distribute inoculations for free, as the world races to contain the pandemic.

A flight carrying 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India landed in Ghana’s capital Accra, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), said in a joint statement.

Presidential advisor on health, Dr. Anthony Nsiah Asare, who made this known says the move will help with monitoring and also encourage more Ghanaians to avail themselves for the vaccination, which comes at no cost.

South Africa’s health minister said on Tuesday that government advisers had grouped COVID-19 vaccines into three groups and those considered for “immediate use” were the Johnson & Johnson (J&J), Pfizer and Moderna shots.