In the face of the Omnicron variant, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has advised that imposition of lockdown as a measure to contain and manage the spread of the coronavirus should be avoided at all cost.LCCI President, Dr Michael Olawale-Cole, gave the advice at a news conference on Thursday in Lagos.

“While we celebrate the positive Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth recorded all through the three quarters of this year, the recovery of the economy from the impact of COVID-19 in 2020 is still fragile.

“Government must do everything in its power to sustain the positive growth trajectory towards an inclusive and sustainable growth rate.

“Nigeria needs a long-term containment strategy and public health action plan to manage epidemics and pandemics without having to lock down the economy,” he said

Olawale-Cole said that scientists, epidemiologists, and the World Health Organisation (WHO) had recommended vaccination as the most potent protection against the COVID-19 virus.

He, however, noted that developing countries, unfortunately, suffered from a lack of access to vaccines and a weak pharmaceutical manufacturing base.

“In addition, and like in other parts of the world, vaccine hesitancy has been prevalent.

“Recent statistics from Our World in Data indicates that as of 2nd December, the number of vaccines doses administered in Nigeria was 10.9million, translating to about 1.8 per cent of the Nigerian population.

“Meanwhile, South Africa has administered about 26.3million (about 25 per cent of the population), Kenya about 7.58million (5.5 per cent of the population) and Ghana’s vaccination statistics for total doses given stood at 3.5 million, translating to about 2.7 per cent of the population.

“We are obviously lagging behind our peers,” the LCCI President said.

He charged the government to take the pandemic as an opportunity to make sustainable changes and improvements in the Nigerian healthcare sector.

According to him, it is a pathway to accelerating progress toward the achievement of Universal Health Coverage.

Olawale-Cole proposed in the short term that the government develop and deploy strategies, addressing the supply and demand side of vaccination to get more citizens vaccinated.

“The Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) needs to conduct quick studies on the new variant and advise the government on the next steps of containment.

“Government needs to clamp down on any existing vaccine card racketeers who issue fake vaccination cards to outbound travelers from Nigeria to developed countries.

“In addition, the government needs to create an intelligence monitoring mechanism to check the utilization of funds allocated to COVID-19 interventions,” he said.

Olawale-Cole also proposed steps that the government should take in the medium to long term.

He said that government needed to provide the necessary support and enabling environment for the private sector to invest heavily in the manufacturing of vaccines that could meet the nation’s domestic demand and for export.

“In the context of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), this has the potential to be a major source to earn foreign exchange,” he said.