By Omeiza Ajayi – Abuja

The Nigerian Federal Government has said its citizens may have to learn to live with the COVID-19 until there is a vaccine to halt its spread.

The government also asked the organized labour to develop new strategies for workplace operations at the end of the current outbreak of the pandemic.

These were part of the disclosures at Friday’s briefing of the Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19 in Abuja.

Speaking during the briefing, the Director General of the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu in his said Nigerians would have to learn to live with the pandemic until there is a vaccine to halt it.

“…we really encourage all Nigerians, because we are at the beginning of a journey and the most likely scenario is that until we have a vaccine, we would have to learn to live with COVID-19 in our country.

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“We have to tell ourselves the truth about this and encourage one another because there is no point doing that. All of us here are just as vulnerable as catching the virus as are many other people. We will do our best, but we will always have to remember that it is a virus, you cannot build a wall and anything can still happen in spite of our best efforts”, he added.

Meanwhile, the WHO Country Representative in Nigeria, Dr Fiona Braka who spoke of the rigorous processes involved in approving a vaccine for any disease said 89 vaccines are currently in development globally.

She said; “on the subject of vaccines and clinical trials for COVID-19, I will like to say that 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.

“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.

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“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 of full drug and drug combinations.

“Nigeria has also expressed interest to be part of this solidarity trial and efforts are underway to start the process in Nigeria”, she added.

Vanguard News Nigeria.