Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari urges UN to ensure COVID-19 vaccine for all

Nigeria addressed the United Nations General Assembly via video conferencing on Wednesday, September 23, and called for “uninhibited supply of safe and effective coronavirus vaccines for all”. Meanwhile, other African nations have sought the equitable distribution of any COVID-19 vaccine.

Africa countries have only been able to anxiously look on as Western and European nations have been able to strike million-dollar deals with pharmaceutical giants for access to the COVD-19 vaccine.

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African nations must also be allowed access to vaccine

In his UN address, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said that the United Nations must do all it can to procure the COVID-19 vaccine for all nations otherwise the organisation “would have failed in its core mission of giving expression, direction and solution to the yearnings of the international community”.

The World Health Organisations has stated that Africa is scheduled to receive 220 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine through an international effort called COVAX which will develop and distribute the vaccine.

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However, experts have stated that Africa will need at least 1.5 billion doses of the vaccine which will be able to cover 60 percent of the continent's population to develop “herd immunity”. On top of that, the vaccine will probably need two doses in order to be effective. As per the John Hopkin coronavirus resource centre, Nigeria has reported more than 57,000 positive COVD-19 cases and has a death toll of over 1,000.

The COVID-19 pandemic which saw its first outbreak in a wet market in Wuhan, China last year has now spread all across the world. The virus, named COVID-19 by the World Health Organisation, has infected over 32 million people worldwide with the global death toll reaching over 979,000.

While the US is already backing several potential COVID-19 vaccines, it also plans to begins the testing of a new COVID-19 vaccine which requires only one shot or dose. The potential COVID-19 vaccine is being developed by Johnson & Johnson and the study already has plans to enroll at least 60,000 volunteers to test the vaccine. Other candidates that are currently also in the final stages of testing require two shots.

(With AP inputs; Image Credit - AP)

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