Health
COVID-19 Third Wave: Nigeria exhausts vaccines, hopeful for more delivery
Just as the fear of the COVID-19 third wave spreads across Nigeria, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) revealed the nation has exhausted all of the vaccines it received from COVAX for the first phase of vaccination.
This was disclosed by the agency’s executive director, Faisal Shuaib, at the southwest zonal town hall meeting on COVID-19 vaccination in Lagos on Thursday.
According to Shuaib, “Nigeria has successfully utilized 3,938,945 doses of Astrazeneca vaccines 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. This is to say, that all vaccines given to Nigeria in this 1st phase has been exhausted,” he said.
This invariably translates that Nigerians who are yet to receive the first batch of vaccines would be unable to get such now.
“Accordingly, the country has officially ended the first phase of its strategic COVID-19 vaccination plan.
“As plans and preparation for the second phase commences, a ‘whole family approach’ vaccination mechanism would be utilized,” he said.
“We have also received communication for the delivery of the following vaccine shipments in the coming months.
“3,924,000 doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca by end of July or early August 2021 from the COVAX facility.
“4,000,080 doses of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine in August from the COVAX facility donated by the United States Government
“3,577,860 doses of Pfizer-Bio-N Tech COVID-19 vaccine in Q3 from the COVAX facility
“29,850,000 doses of Johnson & Johnson (Jassen) COVID-19 vaccine by the end of September, that will arrive in batches from the African Union Commission.
“In preparation for the arrival of these vaccines, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency is putting in place all necessary logistics for storage, distribution, security, and accountability for the range of vaccines we are expecting”.
