Oct. 7, 2021

The National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA), has clarified the issue of the United Kingdom not accepting the country’s vaccination and subjecting Nigerians to compulsory quarantine.

The Director General of the Agency, Dr. Faisal Shuaib gave the clarification at the 5th annual Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) conference in Lagos on Thursday, themed: Post COVID-19 Pandemic: Recovery and Reconstruction in Nigeria.

According to him, there are two issues which the UK government are currently considering before admitting some countries into the UK, but that the FG has started a conversation with them.

“The concern of the UK government is in how some countries are providing evidence of vaccination”.

“They are going through the systematic process of how countries are providing evidence of their vaccination. They want to avoid a situation where people will fo and do vaccine card racketeering and then present fake cards in the UK.”

He however noted that the UK acknowledges that our vaccines are safe and of good quality.

“We’re working on a comprehensive assessment of our system for vaccination validation and hopefully by the next phase our vaccination certification will be accessed”.

“They have not done a comprehensive assessment of our vaccination process yet, but clearly, some of the things they’re seeing in our process is that there is a QR Code, that unique identifier, and this is part of the things they will like to see.”

“They say this looks good enough, but that they have to take the validation processing phases.

He explained that countries have been categorised into amber and others, based on the epistemology of the virus, and that the vaccination process of each country is also being looked at.

He noted that the UK is part of the arrangement of the COVAX facility where we also got the AstraZeneca vaccines, and they have also donated some to us.

“What they have communicated or concluded is that the quality of the vaccines we administer are safe and effective and also approved by the UK government”.

“Unfortunately there seems to be some disconnect between those who put out information on their website and those communicating it,” he said.

Shuaib added that he thinks Nigeria is doing a lot better than some developed countries when it comes to COVID-19 management.

He expressed the readiness of the agency to collaborate with the media in the dissemination of adequate information to help in its vaccination drive.

Shuaib noted that the collaboration will be to establish a robust mechanism that will help in the dissemination of the right information to the general public with regard to vaccines and to help fight the issue with vaccines hesitancy, which is brought about by rumours and fake news.

“The government’s response to COVID-19 has been good and the people have to be more convinced to take the vaccines.