Vaccine inequality will stall COVID-19 fight – FG

 Nigeria has warned that the lack of vaccination by developing countries will provide a fertile ground for the COVID-19 virus to mutate, thus threatening the progress already recorded even in developed countries. The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, gave the warning in Madrid, Spain, on Wednesday at the 24th General Assembly of the […]

 Nigeria has warned that the lack of vaccination by developing countries will provide a fertile ground for the COVID-19 virus to mutate, thus threatening the progress already recorded even in developed countries.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, gave the warning in Madrid, Spain, on Wednesday at the 24th General Assembly of the United Nations World Tourism Organization. 

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He spoke against the background of the latest mutation (Omicron) of the virus which has triggered a wave of travel bans on some countries in Africa. 

The minister, according to a statement by his media aide, Segun Adeyemi, said many developed countries had used the advantage of their enormous resources or relationship to sign agreements with manufacturers to supply their countries with vaccines ahead of making them available for use by other countries. 

‘’Even before the clinical trials were completed, millions of doses of the most promising vaccines have been bought by Britain, US, Japan and the European block countries. Some of these countries bought doses five times the size of their population.

“There are fears that these unilateral deals will deprive the poorest countries of access to these life-saving commodities,” he said.