‘No issues with COVID vaccines received in Nigeria’ — FG clarifies UK’s new travel advisory

September 21, 2021 7:26 pm

The federal government says the United Kingdom government does not have issues with the COVID-19 vaccines administered in Nigeria.

Faisal Shuaib, executive director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), said this on Tuesday during the media briefing held in Abuja.

Shuaib, who was speaking on the new travel advisory issued by the UK, said travellers who were vaccinated in Nigeria will not be affected.

Clarifying the new rules, the NPHCDA executive director said the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine administered in Nigeria was approved by the UK regulatory agency and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Shuaib also said the UK government has assured the federal government that Nigeria would not be added to its red list in the new travel advisory, which is expected to take effect on October 4.

“As you may be aware, the UK government released a new travel advisory which would take effect from Monday October 4th, 2021. There have been concerns by Nigerians on how this would affect us,” he said.

“We would like to clarify that the guidance provided by the UK Government is that they would want to simplify the classification of countries from green, amber and red to just red and green list. Therefore, countries that are currently on the amber list may fall into either of these two categories.

“We have had preliminary discussions with officials of the UK government. Without prejudice to the information yet to be released, we have been assured that Nigeria will maintain the status quo. That is to say Nigeria will not be on the red list.

“The UK Government have also stated that they have no issues with the vaccines used in Nigeria. The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, also known as Covishield that is used in Nigeria was approved by the UK regulatory body (MHRA), other stringent regulatory authorities and the World Health Organisation. So, the UK Government does recognise the vaccines used in Nigeria.

“The UK is doing a phased approach to deal with the high demand and volume of people arriving their country. It is important to stress that this phased approach is still under review by their government and they would be providing updates regularly.

“For Nigeria at the moment, there is no change in the guidelines for entry of Nigerians into the UK. A UK citizen on entry into Nigeria regardless of the vaccination status, is made to do a PCR test and isolated for seven days and same applies for Nigerians entering the UK, you are also required to do PCR test and isolate for a few days. This is called the principle of reciprocity in the diplomatic circles.”