Joseph Bakare
Nigeria has officially wind down phase of COVID-19 vaccination.
The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), which disclosed this said the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is 88 per cent potent against the Delta variant detected in the country.
The Executive Director of NPHCDA, Dr Faisal Shuaib, who made this known at a news conference in Abuja on Tuesday, July 13, said Nigeria had received the first consignment of about 3.92 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine on March 2, 2021; through the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Assess Facility (COVAX).
Shuaib, said Nigeria had successfully vaccinated 3,938,945 eligible people across the 36 states of the federation and the FCT; representing 98 per cent utilisation of the 4,024,000 doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine.
He said “this comprises 2,534,205 people who have been vaccinated for the first dose; and 1,404,205 who also received the second dose of the vaccine.
“In the course of this exercise, the country recorded 14,550 cases of mild/moderate Adverse Event Following Immunization (AEFI), with 148 cases considered to be severe. However, we did not record any case of death associated with COVID-19 vaccination.”
The executive director noted that the country had officially ended the first phase of its strategic COVID-19 vaccination plan; and was now preparing to commence the second phase in the next few weeks.
He added that “we have also received communication for the delivery of the following vaccine shipments in the coming months.
“We are making every effort and are confident that with continued support, Nigeria will be able to make significant utilisation of the vaccines that would be supplied to the country.”
He disclosed that the NPHCDA was putting in place necessary logistics for storage; distribution; security; and also accountability for the range of vaccines the country was expecting.