The United States Mission to Nigeria has celebrated Dr Onyema Ogbuagu, for his role in the development of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Ogbuagbu, was a 2003 graduate of the University of Calabar, who migrated to the US and rose to become an Associate Professor of Medicine and Infectious Disease Specialist at Yale University.

He was part of the team worked on developing the vaccine for the pharmaceutical company, Pfizer.

In a Facebook message on Monday, the US mission wrote, “Nigerians contribute to the world in so many ways. Our hats off to Dr Onyema Ogbuagu at Yale who helped develop a COVID-19 vaccine.”

Ogbuagu, the son of a former Vice-Chancellor of Abia State University, Prof Stella Ogbuagu, also has a twin brother who is an engineer.

The need for a vaccine has become more urgent globally and according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control,  Nigeria has recorded over 60,000 COVID-19 infections and over 1,000 associated fatalities.