Nigeria, five other African countries to begin COVID-19 vaccine production -WHO

Nigeria and five other African countries have been chosen to begin production of COVID-19 vaccines, with the continent having had limited access to jabs.

“Today I’m delighted to announce the first six African countries that will receive technology from the hub to produce their own mRNA vaccines: Egypt, Kenya Nigeria, Senegal South Africa, and Tunisia,” Director-General of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Ghebreyesus, announced on Friday.

According to the WHO, they were selected as the first recipients of technology from the organisation’s global mRNA vaccine hub, in a push to ensure the African continent can make its own jabs to fight COVID and other diseases.

“I was honoured to visit the Hub last week. And it’s already producing results, with Afrigen’s announcement that it has produced its own mRNA vaccine, based on publicly-available information about the composition of an existing vaccine,” Ghebreyesus said.

“We expect clinical trials to start in the 4th quarter of this year, with approval expected in 2024. We expect the benefits of this initiative will extend far beyond #COVID19, by creating a platform for vaccines against other diseases including malaria and tuberculosis”.

“WHO will work with the companies and the government in each country to develop a roadmap for training and production, based on their needs and capacities.

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“Thank you all, and we look forward to working with all of you to make this project a success, for the healthier, safer and fairer Africa”.

On Thursday, Nigeria recorded 45 new cases of the virus, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 254,182.

230,530 cases are, however, said to have recovered, while 3,141 deaths have been recorded in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

The 45 new cases were reported from eight states – Lagos (18), Cross River (7), FCT (7), Oyo (5), Kano (3), Nasarawa (3), Ekiti (1) and Rivers (1).

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