TheCable

President Muhammadu Buhari has told the European Union (EU) that the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has been considerate on Nigerians with a low infection rate. 

Speaking at the EUAU Summit in Brussels, Buhari appreciated the EU for its donation of vaccines to Nigeria, and the level of work being done to combat the pandemic. 

“Nigeria is very grateful, COVID-19 has been more or less considerate on Nigeria. The figures of those infected are quite low,” he said.

“We express our gratitude to the presidents of Europe and France especially for giving us a lot of the COVID vaccines.”

Buhari said his government has been trying “very hard to make sure that we have the storage so they don’t get expired quickly as a result of the heat of the weather there”. 

“We try to make those logistics available and we are mobilising our health workers to make sure that the rural areas that are far and wide are reached. And we are very grateful that the amount of work being done. Thank you very much for your contribution.”

Earlier,  Tedros Ghebreyesu, the director-general of the World Health Organisation (WHO), had named Nigeria as one of six African countries to receive the technology to produce its own mRNA vaccines.

The DG said he expect the benefits of the technology transfer to extend far beyond COVID-19, by creating a platform for vaccines against other diseases including malaria, tuberculosis, and even cancer.