FG to host summit on developing strategies to end COVID pandemic by Dec 2022

The federal government has announced that it will host a national summit aimed at ending the COVID pandemic by December 2022.

Mukhtar Mohammed, national incident manager, presidential steering committee (PSC) on COVID-19, announced this on Monday at the bi-weekly national briefing on COVID in Abuja.

The summit, which is also designed to come up with recommendations for building back the country’s health system in order to equip it to better respond to future threats, will take place from December 6 to 8, 2021.

The theme of the summit is ‘Pushing through the Last Mile to End the Pandemic and Build Back Better’.

Mohammed said the summit will provide a forum for the country to review its response to COVID-19 from the beginning of the pandemic.

“This crucial summit will provide a forum for presentations and brainstorming on the following: to review the country’s COVID-19 response from February 2020 to November 2021; to identify successes, gaps, and lessons learnt; to identify resources and develop strategies that will actualise the country’s expressed international commitments towards ending COVID-19 by December 31, 2022,” he said.

“Others are to develop an accountability framework for COVID-19 response and health security in Nigeria, and to synthesise the blueprint for Nigeria’s pandemic recovery, reconstruction, health security, and sustainability.

“[The summit will] articulate actionable recommendations to President Muhammadu Buhari on the governance structure, resources, and policies needed to end COVID-19 in Nigeria by December 31, 2022, and build back the health system and the economy to better respond to future health-security threats.

“The summit will go a long way to demonstrating Nigeria’s readiness to action its international commitments, which will bolster the confidence and support of our international development partners in concerted efforts to ambitiously end the COVID-19 pandemic by December 31, 2022.

“Moreover, it will set the tone to strengthen our health system and bio-security architecture to be able to effectively respond to present and future global health security threats.”

As of Monday, Nigeria had recorded 213,589 confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 206,518 recoveries, 4,097 active cases and 2,974 deaths.