The National Primary Health Care Development Agency, NPHCDA, has said that Nigeria will take delivery of 3,924,000 doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca/Moderna by end of July or early August 2021 from the COVAX facility.
The NPHCDA Executive Director, Dr Faisal Shuaib, made this disclosure, Tuesday, in Abuja, during a press conference.
Mr Shuaib also disclosed that another 3,930,910 doses of Pfizer-Bio-N Tech/Moderna COVID-19 vaccine would be received in August from the United States Government, just as he added that 29,850,000 doses of Johnson & Johnson (Jassen) COVID-19 vaccine would be delivered into the country by the end of September.
According to him, the Agency is putting in place all necessary logistics for storage, distribution, security, and accountability for the range of vaccines we are expecting.
Mr Shuaib said Nigeria has successfully vaccinated 3,938,945 eligible persons across 36 states and FCT, representing 98% utilization of the 4,024,000 doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine it received from COVAX facility in March 2021.
“This comprises of 2,534,205 people who have been vaccinated for first dose, and 1,404,205 who have received their second dose of the vaccine”. He said.
He, however, appealed to the public to remain on alert over the increasing cases of the pandemic.
“We need to remain on alert and continue to provide Nigerians with factual information to enable them see the need to get vaccinated against COVID-19,” he cautioned.
While emphasizing the need for maintaining non-pharmaceutical or public health measures as fresh cases of the pandemic surface, Mr Shuaib said: “With the detection of the Delta Variant of COVID-19 in Nigeria, it is important that Nigerians continue to observe non-pharmaceutical or public health measures.
“The measures include wearing of facemask, social distancing and hand hygiene in order to curb the transmission of the disease, while we await additional doses of the COVID-19 vaccines.”
Speaking further on vaccination eligibility, Mr Shuaib said that anyone who is 18 years and above, including pregnant and lactating women is eligible to take COVID-19 vaccine.
On local vaccine production, he said the process of supporting our local partner, Biovaccines Nigeria limited is continuing.
