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COVID-19 third wave possible if Nigerians continue ignoring safety measures –Virologist

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Angela Onwuzoo

A  renowned Professor of virology and former Vice-Chancellor of the Redeemer’s University, Oyewale Tomori, says if people do not change their attitude and go back to obeying the non-pharmaceutical interventions recommended for the prevention of COVID-19 spread,  Nigeria may experience a  third wave of infection.

Tomori cautions that people should not abandon COVID-19 prevention measures because of the low cases of new infections being recorded in the country, warning that Nigeria is not out of the woods yet.

The virologist who is also Chairman, Ministerial Expert Advisory Committee on COVID-19, stated this on Tuesday during a media roundtable in Lagos organised by the Nigerian Academy of Science in collaboration with Vitafoam Nigeria Plc.

Tomori explained, “When you see countries in Europe experiencing another wave, they let down their guards even though they are vaccinating. So, when they let down their guards, the wave came back again.

“The virus is still around in Nigeria and people are going about without obeying the non-pharmaceutical interventions.  People don’t wear face masks.   All it requires is for the virus to get a new variant that will become either more effective and then we are going to get our third wave.

“As a scientist, from the circumstances around and with the fact that we are still not maintaining our guards and not wearing our face masks and people are still mixing, it is a matter of time.

“This is because all the virus requires is a few people getting the virus multiplying and variants coming up. If it comes with a strong variant, then, it may affect the rest of the people who have not been infected. That is why we must guard against the possibility of the third wave coming.”

Tomori, a past president of NAS noted that the only way for the country to guard against the third wave is for the people to strictly obey those non-pharmaceutical interventions.

“We shouldn’t abandon all those things now because the virus is still around and people can still get infected”, he added.

The Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 now Presidential Steering Committee had in December 2020 declared that Nigeria has entered the second wave of coronavirus infections.

Data from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control shows that 1,870,915 samples have been tested, 164,303 cases confirmed, 154,384 cases discharged and 2, 061 deaths recorded in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory as of April 20, 2021.

Nigeria had on March 2, 2021, received its first COVID-19 vaccines delivered under the international COVAX scheme.

According to the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Nigeria has so far vaccinated over a million eligible people out of its target of 70 percent of the nation’s population.

 

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