FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ENFORCES MANDATORY VACCINATION FOR CIVIL SERVANTS

The Federal Government has commenced the enforcement of mandatory vaccination against COVID-19 at the Federal Secretariat. On Wednesday, reports say security men manned the main entrance to the Federal Secretariat where they demanded either a vaccination card or evidence of negative PCR test before allowing the civil servants to enter the Secretariat. However, a vaccination stand has been set up under a canopy close to the secretariat for those interested to take their vaccine.

The Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19 had earlier given a directive mandating all Federal Civil Servants to be vaccinated or present evidence of negative PCR test for COVID-19, effective from December 1, 2021. The enforcement of the mandatory vaccination comes amid fears of the new Omicron coronavirus variant. Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC said on Wednesday that three cases of the variant have been confirmed in the country.

The health agency said the three cases of the variant were discovered through genomic sequencing, linking the cases to three passengers from South Africa. The NCDC boss, Ifedayo Adetifa, revealed that since reports of the emergence of the Omicron variant, the Federal Ministry of Health, through the NCDC, has intensified public health response measures to COVID-19.