#COVID19: “Vaccine Nationalism” Cannot Beat The Virus

As part of measures to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO), yesterday, warned against “vaccine nationalism”.

It said vaccine-hogging richer countries would not be safe coronavirus havens if poor nations remained exposed.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO chief said it would be in wealthier nations’ interests to ensure that any vaccines eventually produced to protect against the new coronavirus were shared globally.

Tedro, while speaking at the Aspen Security Forum in the United States, via video-link from the WHO’s headquarters in Geneva, said “Vaccine nationalism is not good, it will not help us.”

Continuing, he said: “For the world to recover faster, it has to recover together, because it’s a globalised world: the economies are intertwined. Part of the world or a few countries cannot be a safe haven and recover.

“The damage from COVID-19 could be less when those countries who… have the funding commit to this.”

According to him, the existence of the deadly respiratory disease anywhere put lives and livelihoods at risk everywhere.

The WHO chief said: “They are not giving charity to others: they are doing it for themselves, because when the rest of the world recovers and opens up, they also benefit.”

According to the latest figures published by Johns Hopkins University, 18,982,658 cases have been detected gobally, with 712,266 deaths and 11,477,834 people recovered

Nigeria reported 354 new confirmed cases and 3 deaths, on Thursday night.

Till date, 45244 cases have been confirmed in Nigeria, 32430 cases have been discharged and 930 deaths have been recorded in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The 354 new cases are reported from 17 states- FCT (78), Lagos (76), Kaduna (23), Ebonyi (19), Oyo (18), Nasarawa (17), Rivers (17), Delta (16), Kwara (15), Akwa Ibom (13), Edo (12), Ogun (12), Plateau (11), Kano (9), Bauchi (6), Borno (6), and Ekiti (6).