Nigerian gov’t compels civil servants to show COVID-19 vaccination proof to access offices

Abuja, Nigeria | Xinhua | Nigerian government has said it will compel federal civil servants to show proof of vaccination against COVID-19 before gaining access to their offices from Dec. 1.

The move was to encourage the vaccination rate across the country, said Boss Mustapha, the secretary to the government of the federation, at a daily press briefing on COVID-19 in Abuja on Wednesday.

Mustapha, who is also the chairman of the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19, said the civil servants might further need to present negative Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests conducted within 72 hours to have access to offices in all locations within Nigeria and the missions, adding that an appropriate service-wide advisory or circular would be issued to guide the process.

“Statistics generated over the last four weeks on testing have shown that the trend of infection is going down in some states, while in others, the trajectory is upward,” the government’s scribe said.

He added that the combined total for testing by PCR and rapid diagnostic tests now stands at about 3,141,795 since the onset of the pandemic in the most populous African country.

Nigeria is currently expanding vaccine sources, with an ambitious goal of vaccinating at least 40 percent of its population by the end of this year, and 70 percent by the end of 2022.

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Xinhua