NCDC says COVID-19 vaccines effective against Omicron

02 Dec NCDC says COVID-19 vaccines effective against Omicron

The director general of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, Ifedayo Adetifa, has advised Nigerians to dismiss what he described as speculations that vaccines have no effect on the Omicron variant.

He said vaccination remains “a very powerful tool to prevent transmission of the disease and death caused by this virus.”

Adetifa, who spoke on Channel’s “Sunrise Daily” programme on yesterday said NCDC believes that even if the Omicron variant has any impact on vaccination, “it cannot be equal to full abrogation”.

“So theoretically speaking, if the vaccine was 90 per cent protective against severe disease and deaths from the Delta variant, it may become 80 per cent protective from the Omicron variant. So while we work out what kind of impact it will have on vaccine protective effect, the point remains that vaccines are effective, safe and they confer protection,”  Adetifa said.

According to the director general, the centre, like other scientists across the world, does not know how dangerous the variant is, noting that investigations are still ongoing.

Adetifa warned Nigerians of possible emergence of a more dangerous variant, and advised them to remain cautious by observing all non-pharmaceutical measures to ward off the danger.

He said the consequences may be bad if they throw caution to the wind.

He said the emergence of the Omicron variant is a reminder that the battle is not over, that there is still a risk.

* Wednesday Caseload: Nigeria recorded 52 new cases and 1 death on Wednesday, as more countries reported the detection of the Omicron variant. There are now 214270 confirmed cases, 207312 recoveries and 2978 deaths recorded in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory

The new cases are reported from 7 States- Lagos (29), FCT (12), Kaduna (4), Bauchi (3), Kano (2), Ogun (1), and Oyo (1)

* Heavily mutated Omicron is rapidly becoming the dominant variant of the coronavirus in South Africa. The United States, Brazil and Saudi Arabia have also reported cases of the variant

* President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa has said the travel ban imposed by some western countries over the discovery of the Omicron COVID-19 variant is discriminatory and unproductive in the long run.