Buhari, Osinbajo to take COVID-19 vaccine on Saturday

President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo are expected to receive their COVID-19 vaccine on Saturday.

Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Faisal Shuaib, made this known at the second edition of State House weekly briefing.

The briefing focused on the arrival of the COVID-19 vaccine and Nigeria’s response to the pandemic, in the last one year.

According to the NPHCDA boss, Buhari and Osinbajo will receive the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine after some frontline health workers are vaccinated on Friday.

The Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 (PTF) and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha will also receive his first dose of the vaccine on the same day.

At the event, the Director-General of National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, warned Nigerians on the existence of fake COVID-19 vaccines in the global market.

She said: “That’s why NAFDAC is focusing on track-and-trace, to ensure no infiltration of substandard vaccines in supply chain. Traceability is very important; we can trace the vaccines from airport to the patient.”

On his part, the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, described the arrival of the first batch of the COVID-19 vaccine as a game changer.

He, however, stated that “we must not stretch our luck. We must continue with our non-pharmaceutical measures.

“We must look at vaccine as a game changer, but make no mistake that it’s a replacement for everything else.

”It is an additional strategy. Vaccines are an addition to the existing response, not a replacement.”