The Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. FAISAL Shuaib, says that the Nigerian government is procuring a total of 29,850,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson (Janssen) COVID-19 vaccine.
Shuaib said in his national briefing in Abuja that the government had recently received communication from the COVAX facility for additional allocation of 3,924,000 doses of AstraZeneca/AZD1222 vaccine, which would be available for delivery into the country by July/August 2021.
“Similarly, the government is procuring a total allocation of 29,850,000 of Johnson & Johnson (Janssen) COVID-19 vaccine through the African Union Commission and the AfreximBank arrangement. This is expected by September 2021,” he said.
He disclosed that a total of 3,441,146 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine have so far been utilised for the first and second dose vaccinations in Nigeria.
According to him, a total of 4,024,000 doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine were received by the Nigerian government in March 2021, 3.924 million through the COVAX facility and another 100,000 doses from the Government of India.
“I am glad to inform you that 3,441,146 doses have so far been utilized for the 1st and 2nd dose vaccinations, which is approximately 88 percent of the total AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine stock in the country.
He explained that 2,265,805 people have been vaccinated with the first dose; while 1,175,341 people were vaccinated with the second dose and this means 88 percent of vaccine doses have been used.
“Based on these data and comparative information from other countries, Nigeria continues to have the highest vaccination rates in Africa with approximately 87,000 people being vaccinated daily. Egypt, South Africa, Ghana and Senegal each has daily vaccination rates of 72,000, 52,600, 12,100 and 4,790, respectively,” he said.
According to him, no vaccine with the expiration date of June 28 that has not been utilized.
Speaking on the expiration of vaccines in Nigeria, he explained that there is no vaccine with the expiration date of June 28 that has not been utilized, which means that there is currently zero balance of such vaccines in Nigeria.
GIK/APA