Good News: Nigerian Govt to Receive 41 Million COVID-19 Vaccines As Third Wave Begins
- Forty-one million different combination of vaccines are expected in Nigeria by the end of September
- The vaccine are to be received from COVID-19 Vaccines Global Assess Facility (COVAX) facility and the United States Government
- According to the executive director of NPHCDA, the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine has at least 88 per cent potency against the Delta variant of COVID-19
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Abuja, FCT - The Federal Government on Tuesday, July 13, said Nigeria is set to receive 41,282,770 doses of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of September 2021.
The announcement was made by the executive director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Faisal Shuaib, at the agency's weekly press briefing attended by Legit.ng reporter.
Speaking at the briefing Shuaib said expected doses of vaccines expected in the country include the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines, Pfizer-Bio-N Tech/Moderna and Johnson & Johnson products.
Source: Facebook
Shuaib said the Oxford AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines are expected in the country through efforts of the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Assess Facility (COVAX) while the Johnson & Johnson vaccines is expected from the African Union Commission.
He said the FG has already received communication for the delivery of the vaccine shipments in the coming months.
A Combination of Vaccines for Nigerians
According to him, Nigeria is expecting 3,924,000 doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca/Moderna by end of July or early August 2021; 3,930,910 doses of Pfizer-Bio-N Tech/Moderna COVID-19 vaccine in August from the COVAX facility donated by the United States government and 3,577,860 doses of Pfizer-Bio-N Tech/Moderna COVID-19 vaccine in Q3 from the COVAX facility.
He also said that 29,850,000 doses of Johnson & Johnson (Janssen) COVID-19 vaccine is expected into the country in batches by the end of September.
The J & J COVID-19 vaccine which are expected in batches are from the African Union Commission.
The NPHCDA boss also said the government is putting in place all necessary logistics for storage, distribution, security, and accountability for the range of vaccines expected.
Shuaib said:
“To this end, the federal government has procured 60 units of U701 ultra cold chain equipment, and as we speak, about 37 of them have been deployed to all the 36 States and FCT in preparation to receive all COVID-19 vaccines that would require an ultra-cold temperature of below 40 to 85 degrees."
Successful Vaccination Campaign in Nigeria
Shuaib said 2,534,205 people have been vaccinated for first dose while 1,404,205 have received their second dose of the vaccine.
He said Nigeria recorded 14,550 cases of mild/moderate Adverse Event Following Immunization (AEFI), with only 148 cases considered to be severe.
He said:
“However, we did not record any case of death associated with COVID-19 vaccination."
He also said that Nigeria has officially ended the first phase of its strategic COVID-19 vaccination plan and is now preparing to commence the second phase in the next few weeks.
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Appealing to everyone eligible to take the vaccine, Shuaib said the country will make more significant utilization of the COVID-19 vaccines that would be supplied to the country in coming weeks.
Further reacting to the recorded case of the Delta variant of COVID-19 in Nigeria, Shuaib said AstraZeneca vaccines already used in Nigeria has shown to be at least 88 per cent effective against the mutant virus.
Shuaib said:
“The Delta variant has so far shown that it is very minimal vaccine escape properties against the AstraZeneca vaccine so we are still in a good place."
In a Facebook post, NPHCDA said the director-general of the National Orientation Agency, Garba Abari paid a courtesy visit to Shuaib as part of the agencies collaboration for risk communication in Nigeria.
Legit.ng previously reported that Nigeria's minister of interior, Rauf Aregbesola had said that many experts were disappointed over the number of COVID-19 cases in Africa.
Aregbesola said some of the experts had predicted that Africa nations would collapse due to damaging economic effects of COVID-19.
He said Africa and especially Nigeria adopted the use of non-pharmaceutical policies put in place by the government which controlled the spread of the virus.
In other news, the Lagos state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has decried the resurgence of COVID-19 cases in the state.
The governor said isolation centers in the state are beginning to get occupied again.
He called for caution by citizens and residents of Lagos state to put on hands on deck to prevent a major health emergency in the state.
Source: Legit.ng
