The United Kingdom (UK) Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss, has pledged up to £105 million of UK emergency aid to help vulnerable countries tackle the Omicron COVID-19 variant, with a particular focus on Nigeria and other African countries.
This was disclosed in a statement issued yesterday by the British High Commission in Abuja.
It said the vital aid will be delivered through trusted partners, such as the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), stressing that it will scale up testing especially in parts of Africa where testing rates for COVID-19 remain lowest and allowing health systems to track and respond to the spread of the virus more effectively.
The statement reads, “Scale-up testing – especially in parts of Africa where testing rates for Covid-19 remain lowest – allowing health systems to track and respond to the spread of the virus more effectively. This is in addition to the UK’s world-leading genomic sequencing support.
“Improve access to oxygen supplies for ventilators – a surge in demand for oxygen is a significant risk for some countries.
“Provide communities with hygiene advice, products and access to handwashing facilities and support deep cleaning in schools, health centres and other public places. This will build on the successful global hygiene campaign between UK aid and Unilever which has reached over 1.2 billion people since its launch in 2020.
“Fund the UK’s ground-breaking science and research into the spread of variants like Omicron to enable innovative evidence-based policy responses in low and middle-income countries.
“Ready the UK’s own expert emergency teams for deployment overseas to crisis hotspots, including with new medical equipment.”
The government also confirmed that as of today, over 30 million vaccines have been delivered so far as part of the UK’s pledge to donate 100 million doses to the world, benefitting more than 30 countries, including Nigeria.
Doses donated by the UK have reached four continents and provided vital protection from Covid-19 in countries including Nigeria, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana and Rwanda.
Also, out of the more than 30 million doses now donated so far, 24.6 million have been received by COVAX for delivery to countries and 5.5 million have been shared directly with countries in need.
The UK has so far donated to Nigeria over 1.2m doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines through COVAX in 2021. Millions more vaccines will be sent to Nigeria and other countries in 2022, including 20 million Oxford-AstraZeneca doses and 20 million Janssen doses.
The statement further notes that “the UK has been at the forefront of the global response to Covid-19. Today’s announcement builds on the £1.3 billion in UK aid committed to the international health response early on in the pandemic, supporting vaccines, health systems and economic recovery in developing countries.
“The UK Government has also invested more than £88 million to support the development of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, and the UK became the first country in the world to approve the jab a year ago today.
“In Nigeria, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) supported the improved capability and capacity of the NCDC for COVID genomic sequencing, which has now conducted more than 2000 tests compared to about 400 tests six months ago.
“The UKHSA is also building the diagnostic capacity in Nigeria for common childhood diseases, such as pertussis (whooping cough) and other diseases of public health significance.
“The UKHSA is also supporting the development of national and subnational health security plans, including building the technical and leadership capacity within the NCDC.
“The UKAid funded Lafiya programme has also supported the procurement of £2m worth of PPE kits, protecting more than 5,000 health workers in the five Northern States: Borno, Yobe, Kaduna, Kano and Jigawa.”
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said, “The UK is providing vital assistance to help tackle the spread of new variants around the world.
“This is key to securing our freedom and ending this pandemic once and for all. I am proud that we have also delivered over 30 million vaccines to benefit our friends around the world this year.
“The UK is helping other countries most in need. No one is safe until everyone is safe.”