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

Ogbuagbu, who graduated from the University of Calabar in 2003, migrated to the US and rose to become Associate Professor of Medicine and Infectious Disease Specialist at Yale University.

He was part of the team that helped pharmaceutical company, Pfizer, to develop the vaccine.

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

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