Covid-19 Vaccine Trials To Begin In Nigeria – WHO

Coronavirus otherwise known as COVID-19 Vaccine trials is set to begin in Nigeria soon as processes underway to start by the World Health Organisation WHO.

The Officer in charge, WHO Nigeria and member of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, Dr. Fiona Braka, said this on Friday in Abuja, at the 24th joint national briefing of the committee.

According to her, on the subject of vaccines and clinical trials for Covid-19, research and development is an important aspect of the response and researchers around the world are working hard on accelerating the development of vaccines and therapeutics for Covid-19. She said the WHO has launched various working groups to accelerate various aspects of vaccine development.

Together with global health actors and partners, over the past week, WHO launched the Access to Covid-19 Tools ACT Accelerator, a global collaboration to accelerate development for equitable access to new Covid-19 diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines. “We have a total of 89 vaccines that are in development globally, including seven in clinical evaluation and several therapeutics are in clinical trials. WHO is committed to ensuring that as medicines and vaccines are developed, they are shared equitably with all countries and people.

“We do have the solidarity trial which is an international clinical trial to help find an effective treatment for Covid-19, launched by the WHO and partners. More than 100 countries have joined the solidarity trial and to date, over 1,200 patients have been randomized from the first five countries to evaluate the safety and efficacy full drug and drug combinations,” Braka said.