By Abujah Racheal
The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) says 1,692,315 eligible Nigerian have received two doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines.
The Executive Director, NPHCDA, Dr Faisal Shuaib, disclosed this at the briefing of the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) on COVID-19 on Monday, in Abuja.
The progress was recorded in the six months since the country commenced the COVID-19 vaccination of its citizens.
“1,692,315 persons have received two doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines, as approved by the World Health Organization (WHO).
“As at Monday evening, 4,052,756 eligible Nigerians have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccines.
“This is made up of 2,645,020 persons with the first dose of AstraZeneca vaccine and 1,407,736 persons with first dose of the Moderna vaccine,” Shuaib said.
According to him, “a total of 1,692,315 eligible persons are fully vaccinated and we currently have a national average of 70.4 per cent utilisation of the 2,000,040 doses of the Moderna vaccines we received.”
Shuaib said that the 36 states and the Federal Capital had been guided not to exceed their 50 per cent utilization rates for the Moderna vaccines in order, to reserve the second doses for all those already vaccinated.
He noted that most states had reached the percentage and priority was now being focused on administering AstraZeneca vaccine as first dose vaccine in all states of the federation.
Shuaib urged states yet to publish their vaccination sites to do so across the various media platforms – Newspapers, radio, TV, and social media, to enable people locate their nearest vaccination site.
“The list of vaccination sites across the country is also available on the NPHCDA website: www.nphcda.gov.ng and eligible persons who are unable to register by themselves can go to any designated health facility where he/she will be assisted by our vaccination teams,” he said.
Shuaib noted that state governments were responsible for the protection of the vaccines and vaccination cards sent to them, warning that vaccines would no longer be allocated to states found condoning any acts of corruption in the process of vaccination.
“We have received reports of people trying to procure cards from health workers, these reports are being investigated and anyone found wanting would be prosecuted.
“It is important to emphasize that it is in the interest of public safety and collective well-being of Nigerians that the Federal Government has made available these vaccines free for all eligible persons,” Shuaib stated.
He reiterated that government would continue to work with stakeholders and partners, to ensure delivery of safe and efficacious COVID-19 vaccination in the country.
Nigeria commenced COVID-19 vaccination on 5 March, 2021, having received approximately four million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines from COVAX, an initiative aimed at ensuring equitable distribution of vaccines globally.
The country recently launched the second phase of the COVID-19 vaccinations, after receiving another four million doses of Moderna vaccines from the U.S government.
The country also received another 177,600 doses of Johnson and Johnson (J&J) COVID-19 vaccines from the African Union (AU).
On Aug. 17, Nigeria similarly took delivery of another 699,760 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines from the UK government.
Before the commencement of COVID-19 vaccination, the government had set an ambitious target of vaccinating 40 per cent of its over 200 million population before the end of 2021, and 70 per cent by the end of 2022.
