Omicron Forces Sanwo-Olu To Suspend Planned Peace walk

By Oyebola Owolabi, Moses Emorinken, Abuja and Alao Abiodun

Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has shelved the proposed peace walk billed for this month.

Sanwo-Olu, in his last address on Tuesday, invited some known faces of the #EndSARS protest in the state in October 2020 to a peace walk for “the healing of Lagos”.

Students of the Lagos State University, clerics, other groups expressed solidarity to join the Walk of Peace.

But, in a statement yesterday, Sanwo-Olu clarified that the walk has been suspended due to the emerging COVID-19 variants, especially the Omicron variant.

The statement reads: “Since my last address to you, the good people of Lagos State on Tuesday 30, November 2021, during which I expressed a desire to lead a Walk for Peace, following the outcome of the work of the Judicial Panel on Restitution for Victims of SARS Related Abuses and Other Matters, I have been inundated with deep expressions of solidarity from various groups and people declaring their readiness to join me on the symbolic walk.

“Indeed, I owe a special debt of gratitude to our youths and students, who reached out to either members of my team or directly to me, expressing their readiness to join me on the planned Walk for Peace.

“They include many of our civil society leaders, business leaders within and outside of Corporate Lagos, religious leaders, members of the diplomatic community, entertainers, market associations, trade associations and women groups, who have committed time and resources to prepare for the peace walk. I thank you all.

“When the unseen enemy called Covid-19 began to ravage the world and indeed our nation, I assumed the role of the Incident Commander in our quest to protect the lives of our people. We subjected ourselves to the dictates of science. We chose to be guided not by our emotions, but expert opinions rooted in science.

“Between Tuesday 30, November 2021, that I made my address and now, we have seen a significant rise in cases associated with the Omicron variant of this pandemic.”

It added: “Given this development, I am constrained to stand down all preparations for the Walk for Peace. I will not endanger the life of any Lagosian in my sincere search for peace.

“I am overwhelmed by the outpouring of support the initiative received from far and near. The deluge of support is, however, indicative of one thing: our people know the strategic place of peace to our quest for development.

“I look forward to engaging with you as, ‘We together work for peace!’”

LCCI advises Fed Govt against imposing lockdown

In the face of the Omnicron variant, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has advised that the imposition of lockdown as a measure to contain and manage the spread of the coronavirus should be avoided at all costs.

LCCI President, Dr. Michael Olawale-Cole, gave the advice at a news conference yesterday in Lagos.

“While we celebrate the positive Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth recorded all through the three quarters of this year, the recovery of the economy from the impact of COVID-19 in 2020 is still fragile.

“Government must do everything in its power to sustain the positive growth trajectory towards an inclusive and sustainable growth rate.

“Nigeria needs a long-term containment strategy and public health action plan to manage epidemics and pandemics without having to lock down the economy,” he said

Olawale-Cole said that scientists, epidemiologists and the World Health Organisation (WHO) had recommended vaccination as the most potent protection against the COVID-19 virus.

He, however, noted that developing countries, unfortunately, suffered from a lack of access to vaccines and a weak pharmaceutical manufacturing base.

“We are obviously lagging behind our peers,” the LCCI President said.

He urged the government to take the pandemic as an opportunity to make sustainable changes and improvements in the Nigerian healthcare sector.

According to him, it is a pathway to accelerating progress toward the achievement of Universal Health Coverage.

Olawale-Cole proposed in the short term that the government develop and deploy strategies, addressing the supply and demand side of vaccination to get more citizens vaccinated.

“The Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) needs to conduct quick studies on the new variant and advise the government on the next steps of containment.

“Government needs to clamp down on any existing vaccine card racketeers who issue fake vaccination cards to outbound travellers from Nigeria to developed countries.”

Vaccine booster jabs begin today

The Federal Government will today begin the administration of COVID-19 vaccine booster doses to protect Nigerians from the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, especially the new Omicron variant.

It noted that only fully vaccinated Nigerians with a six-month interval between their last vaccinations will be eligible to get the booster doses.

Furthermore, it added that as of yesterday, 7,361,810 Nigerians have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, representing 6.6 per cent of the eligible population, while 3,846,762 eligible Nigerians have received their second doses and are fully vaccinated against the virus, representing 3.4 per cent of the eligible population.

The Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Faisal Shuaib, stated this during the Flag-off of COVID-19 mass vaccination of refugees, migrants and internally displaced persons (IDPs).

He said: “Following the detection of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in Nigeria, the Federal Government reviewed the country’s vaccination programme and resolved to introduce the booster dose using the Pfizer Bio-N-Tech vaccine across the country. This will take effect from tomorrow, Friday the 10th of December 2021.

“It is pertinent to reiterate the fact that the Nigerian COVID-19 vaccination programme is science-driven. Evidence has shown that the booster dose further increases protection against the virus. Eligibility for the booster dose includes being 18 years and above, fully vaccinated with either two doses of AstraZeneca, Moderna or Pfizer Bio-N-Tech or a single dose of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. The time interval before the booster dose is at least six months for these vaccines, except the Johnson and Johnson which is at least two months.

“This is another opportunity to be further protected. I, therefore, urge all those who have taken the right decision to be fully vaccinated, to walk into the nearest vaccination site for their booster dose as from tomorrow.”

 U.S. donates 2.5m doses of Pfizer shots to Nigeria

The United States has announced the donation of 2.5 million Pfizer vaccine doses to Nigeria.

In a statement yesterday, the U.S. Embassy said the vaccine doses arrived in Abuja this week and were received by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency and taken to cold storage in preparation for distribution.

The vaccines are planned to be distributed to over 3,000 health facilities across the 36 states and FCT-Abuja.

The statement added that the vaccines in the next few weeks will be available across major locations for vaccination in the country.

“Over the next several weeks, the vaccines will be available at major markets, shopping malls, event centres, motor parks, airports, places of employment and religious institutions as part of Nigeria’s mass vaccination campaign.”

The statement added that the United States has donated more than 13.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine in partnership with COVAX, or bilaterally to Nigeria.

“Additionally, the United States has provided more than $119 million in COVID-19 related health assistance,” it added.

The COVID-19 related health assistance, according to the U.S Embassy, includes a 40-bed mobile field hospital, ventilators and related training for 88 hospitals, personal protective equipment, technical assistance for vaccine readiness, risk communication and demand generation for vaccines.

Others include “conducting an epidemiological COVID-19 detection and vaccine hesitancy survey, setting up electronic record systems, rapid response teams, training for over 200,000 military and civilian personnel on COVID-19 control measures, and technology for virtual training”.

 UNICEF: pandemic is worst crisis for children in 75 years history

COVID-19 is the worst crisis the United Nations Children’s Agency (UNICEF) has seen in its 75 years history, the agency said in a report released yesterday.

UNICEF said COVID-19 was challenging decades of progress on key childhood challenges, including poverty, access to education, nutrition and mental well-being.

UNICEF Executive Director, Henrietta Fore, said the widespread impact of COVID-19 continues to deepen, increasing poverty, entrenching inequality and threatening the rights of children.

“While the number of children who are hungry, out of school, abused, living in poverty or forced into marriage is going up, the number of children with access to health care, vaccines, sufficient food and essential services is going down.

“In a year in which we should be looking forward, we are going backwards.”

The report said 100 million additional children were estimated to now be living in multidimensional poverty because of the pandemic, a 10 per cent increase since 2019.

In 2020, over 23 million children missed out on essential vaccines, an increase of nearly four million from 2019 and the highest number in 11 years, the report said.

Fore said in an era of a global pandemic, growing conflicts, and worsening climate change, never has a child-first approach been more critical than today.