Nigeria Takes 'Strong' Decision on Importation of Expired COVID-19 Vaccines

• The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration has said that Nigeria would not be accepting expired COVID-19 vaccines anymore
• NAFDAC said partners are now expected to give the nation vaccines with at least five to six months of expiration dates
• The agency said vaccines with short expiration dates would no longer be accepted by the Nigerian government

As efforts to rid the world of the deadly Coronavirus continues, the Nigerian government reiterating its campaign to keep every citizen safe has taken a firm decision.

The director-general of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration (NAFDAC), Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, said Nigeria will not accept expired vaccines anymore.

Daily Trust reports that Adeyeye said NAFDAC is working with partners across the globe to ensure that vaccines imported into the country have long expiry dates.

Read also

Get ready for another pandemic apart from COVID-19 - UN warns nations

While speaking in Lagos on Wednesday, December 28, Adeyeye said some of the vaccines which were destroyed earlier by the federal government had very short expiration dates.

She said the low shelf-life of the vaccines made it impossible for all the donations made by international partners to be totally utilised due to logistics reasons.

Adeyeye said:

“When developed countries started using the vaccine for many months, we didn’t have access to them until we started receiving donations, not just through COVAX alone but from some countries also."

“The expiration date was shorter than what it was supposed to be and between the time we tested and start using it, there was not enough time and that was the only reason not because we were careless.

The Punch reports that NAFDAC DG assured citizens that going forward Nigeria will only be receiving vaccines with up to five or six months date of expiration.

Read also

Subscribers reject Pantami’s introduction of digital tokens to replace NIN slips

Amind rumour Lai Mohammed makes his COVID-19 status public,

The minister of information, culture and tourism has not tested positive for the deadly COVID-19 virus as widely reported.

The rumour that the minister is positive to COVID-19 and is in isolation has been debunked by his spokesperson Segun Adeyemi.

Adeyemi urged Nigerians to disregard the report and called for an immediate retraction of the report and an apology by the news organisation that created the misinformation.

Get ready for another pandemic apart from COVID-19, UN warns nations

Governments across the world have been advised to strengthen emergency response mechanisms to epidemics.

The call was made on Monday, December 27, by the UN during the International Day for Epidemic Preparedness.

The international body stated that while the world battles with COVID-19, it will not be the last pandemic to be experienced.

Source: Legit.ng