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UK prime minister set to host global vaccine summit 4 June

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The UK Prime Minister will on June 4th host the Global Vaccine Summit, bringing together leaders from around the world at a virtual event to pledge their support to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to protect further 300 million children against infectious diseases like measles, typhoid, and polio.

The Global Vaccine Summit aims to raise at least US$7.4 billion to help Gavi save up to 8 million lives.

As hosts, the UK said it is continuing its global leadership on tackling preventable deaths and stopping the spread of Coronavirus.

This it said builds on their recent role as co-lead for the Global Coronavirus Response Initiative, with Japan, Germany, France, Canada, Norway, Italy, Spain, Saudi Arabia and the European Commission, which successfully raised 7.4 billion euros toward vaccines, tests and treatment to tackle the virus at the Coronavirus Global Response International Pledging Conference on 4 May.

At that conference the UK pledged £388 million which is made up of support we have announced for new vaccines, tests and treatments.

This includes: £250 million to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations to research a coronavirus vaccine – the biggest contribution of any country to this fund; £40 million to support the Global Therapeutics Accelerator, a fund for the rapid development of coronavirus treatments; £23 million to support the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics to develop rapid tests for the virus to help identify and slow its spread and £75 million for the World Health Organization to help them support countries who have weak healthcare systems.

According to the UK, it is collaborating with its international partners on the global effort to find a vaccine as soon as possible and ensure it’s available across the world, including in Nigeria.

”We are working closely with industry and the Bioindustry Association to accelerate vaccine development and manufacturing in the UK, so that when a vaccine is available, it can be made quickly at scale.

”We are now calling on other governments to step up, follow our lead and make commitments to fund fully Gavi’s vital mission for the next five years.

”The UK is proud to be Gavi’s leading donor, and on 29 April the International Development Secretary pledged the equivalent of £330 million a year over the next five years from the aid budget to protect 75 million children from preventable diseases. Gavi is a crucial partner in the fight against infectious diseases globally, including coronavirus.

”With the support of UK Aid, Gavi has immunized over 760 million children in the world’s poorest countries, saving more than 13 million lives. Between 2000 and 2023 Gavi has committed over 3 billion US dollars alone to Nigeria to combat diseases like Measles, Meningitis and Yellow Fever.

”This work is essential if we are to avoid further disease outbreaks and epidemics that would result in needless child deaths and place additional strain on health systems already weakened by coronavirus. Gavi is critical to fighting coronavirus too. In the face of the pandemic, and with UK support, Gavi is already helping poorer countries strengthen vulnerable health systems to help deal with the rising number of coronavirus cases, addressing countries’ immediate COVID-19 needs, including essential supplies such as PPE and infection prevention and control,” it noted.

Speaking on the upcoming Summit, the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Catriona Laing said: “Producing a vaccine for Covid-19 is a priority for the UK government as this will help save lives in Nigeria and globally from the deadly virus.  Gavi is already working hard with partners to ensure any future vaccine that is safe and effective is delivered at scale around the world.

”We welcome Gavi’s partnership with Nigeria over the years, which has helped to fight diseases such as yellow fever, meningitis and measles by improving immunisation rates and strengthening the health systems across the country.

”I welcome the international recognition Nigerians have received for their role in supporting the global effort to find a cure and stop the spread of the coronavirus such as Gavi’s recognition of the Nigerian Public Health and Health Promotion Specialist, Dr. Obinna Ebirim, for his tireless and passionate advocacy for equitable access to vaccines and sustainable immunisation financing in Nigeria,” said Laing.

Speaking on the upcoming Summit, Health Promotion Specialist, Dr. Obinna said: “Gavi is known to support health systems strengthening initiatives that ensures that Vaccines get to the last mile where they are used to vaccinate children and prevent vaccine preventable diseases.

“As we move towards the Global Vaccine Summit to be hosted by the United Kingdom, I call on countries and donors to support the work Gavi is doing. Your support to Gavi means that you are supporting Vaccination programmes in poor and remote communities around the world and in Nigeria, that wouldn’t have had access to vaccines if not for the support Gavi provides.

“Remember, one of the things we have learnt from Covid-19 pandemic is that what affects the health of one country affects the health of everyone. Your support to Gavi; to support low and middle income countries is also a support to your country.”

The UK has committed an additional £20m through the African Union’s new ‘Africa anti-COVID 19 fund’ to recruit and deploy African health experts where they are needed most, to tackle the pandemic.

Coronavirus

Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech is more than 90 percent effective in the first analysis, company reports

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Pfizer and partner BioNTech said Monday that their vaccine against Covid-19 was strongly effective, exceeding expectations with results that are likely to be met with cautious excitement — and relief — in the face of the global pandemic.

The vaccine is the first to be tested in the United States to generate late-stage data. The companies said an early analysis of the results showed that individuals who received two injections of the vaccine three weeks apart experienced more than 90% fewer cases of symptomatic Covid-19 than those who received a placebo. For months, researchers have cautioned that a vaccine that might only be 60% or 70% effective. 

The Phase 3 study is ongoing and additional data could affect results.

Read more via statsnews.com

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EPL confirms eight positive COVID-19 tests

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The Premier League in England said on Monday that eight people had returned positive results in its latest round of COVID-19 tests conducted on players and staff last week.

The league said the individuals who had tested positive for the novel coronavirus would now self-isolate for 10 days.

“The Premier League can today confirm that between Monday, Oct. 12 and Sunday, Oct. 18, 1,575 players and club staff were tested for COVID-19. Of these, there were eight new positive tests,” the Premier League said in a statement.

A total of 42 people have tested positive for the virus in seven rounds of testing since the new campaign began on Sept. 12.

There have been more than 750,000 COVID-19 infections and over 43,000 deaths in the UK, according to a Reuters tally.

(Reuters/NAN)

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[#EndSARS Protests] Nigeria should prepare for increase in COVID-19 cases — FG warns

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Federal Government has warned that with the on-going #ENDSARS protests across the country, cases of COVID-19 will definitely increase in the coming weeks.

Issuing the warning in Abuja, the Chairman, Presidential Taskforce, PTF, on COVID-19 and Secretary to the Government of the Federation SGF, Mr. Boss Mustapha, said despite the appreciable success recorded so far in the fight against COVID-19, the ongoing protests might spark up a second wave of the virus.

He said:  “I can say it authoritatively that with the ongoing protests across the country, in the next two weeks the cases of COVID-19 would have increased. Each and everyone that attended the protests and did not put up any form of protection are likely going to spread the virus. When people contract the virus during the protest gathering, they will go back home and spread it.

“This is one of the reasons we must be extremely careful when we congregate because when you gather together in such an atmosphere where people don’t wear face masks or maintain social distance you are creating potential opportunities for carriers to spread the virus.

“So far we have done pretty well as a country but this protest is like a setback and we must avoid a situation where we will have resurgence. Countries that thought they have overcome are dealing with second wave. We are extremely lucky as a nation and we should be careful of any situation that can warrant second wave.”

Corroborating his views as reported by Vanguard, National Coordinator of PTF on COVID-19, Dr Sani Aliyu, said FCT and Lagos State have successfully tested one percent of their populations, while states such as Rivers, Plateau, Gombe were half way in achieving the one percent target.

“We urge other states to work hard in achieving this target of 1 percent testing because testing rate is still low in the country.  Through our various member MDAs, ‘’We have trained at least 17,000 health works in infection prevention and control, laboratory operation and case management.

“In partnership with Federal Ministry of Heath we have added over 7,000 beds in more than 130 treatment centres, 250 intensive care unit beds through support from donors and the private sector,’’ he said.

On his part, the Minister of State for Health, Adeleke Mamora, said the ministry has distributed ventilator and oxygen to all federal and state hospitals.

He disclosed that one of the challenges federal hospitals were facing was irregular power supply which often leads to breakdown of equipment and disruption of services, “We receive the management of power holding to discuss way of having regular power supply to our teaching hospital and medical centres, this partnership will reduce overhead cost of the hospital,’’ he said.

He said their experience with the management of the pandemic revealed that many of the victims died could have been saved if they had access to services on time, adding that, during their intervention in Kano, ambulances were deployed to evacuate people in critical condition to the hospital.

Meanwhile, President of the Nigeria Medical Association, NMA, Prof Innocent Ujah, disclosed yesterday that no fewer than 1,031 doctors in Nigeria have been exposed to coronavirus in the country, while 16 mortality cases were recorded as of October 8, 2020. According to him, this puts the mortality rate at 4.98 percent.

Speaking at a press conference in Lagos to announce the NMA 2020 Physicians’ Week, with the theme ‘’Strategy for health system recovery during the Covid-19 pandemic in Nigeria” and sub-theme: “Dental caries: The four-pronged fork.” Ujah said of the 1,031 cases, 321 were confirmed, while 16 doctors were lost in the battle against the virus.

Ujah, who expressed sadness over the deaths of  members, described their death as the prize they had to pay in obedience to the Hippocratic Oath of their profession. Stating that COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the inadequacies of health systems around the world,  the NMA president said many health systems across the world were overwhelmed by the pandemic due to inadequate emergency preparedness and response, largely due to inadequate human resources, infrastructural deficit and medical consumables, including personal protective equipment and other protective equipment.

He pointed out that most countries, such as Nigeria, were suffering due to gross under-funding of the health sector. He said:   “No disease has ever before laid bare the state of the country’s health sector like COVID-19. COVID-19 has revealed acute shortages of critical and lifesaving equipment such as ventilators and intensive care beds in our hospitals.”

Ujah added that the dire shortages of medical capacity has further put a spotlight on the poor state of health in Nigeria and distance to travel to ensure that health care was affordable and accessible to all citizens for Universal Health Coverage, UHC, to be achieved.

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