Nigeria to Resume COVID-19 Vaccinations Next Week
Nigeria will restart COVID-19 inoculations on August 16 after taking delivery of 4 million doses of Moderna vaccine, with shipments of Johnson & Johnson shots also due imminently, Dr. Faisal Shuaib, the head of the primary healthcare agency said on Tuesday.
The Ministry said in June that Nigeria has made significant progress towards utilizing the 4 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine gotten from the COVAX facility, adding that that is why Nigeria vaccine rollout has been described as the best in the African sub-region.
Nigeria has so far vaccinated only a tiny fraction of its population of 200 million, largely due to a lack of supply.
Dr. Shuaib told reporters on July 6th that 2,495,632 people have been vaccinated with the first dose, while 1,370,130 have received their second dose of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in Nigeria. Meanwhile, the rollout of vaccines in the largest populated economy in Africa was halted on July 9 because supplies had run out.
However, with the arrival of the Moderna doses from the United States last week, the country is prepared for another rollout, said Dr. Shuaib. In particular, he said labels with barcodes were being prepared that would allow for efficient record-keeping of administered doses.
“We want to call on all Nigerians to remain assured that the vaccines that we have are safe and will be deployed next week,” Shuaib told reporters.
Since the start of the pandemic, Nigeria has recorded about 175,000 cases of COVID-19 and over 2,000 deaths, but the real figures could be much higher as testing is patchy.
The highly contagious Delta variant has recently been detected in the country and authorities have warned infections are rising.
Overall, Nigeria has successfully utilized 3.9 million doses, representing 96% of the 4,024,000 doses of the vaccines received in the country. Nigeria is poised to achieve 100% utilization of the doses of vaccine it has received in the next few days. This is to ensure that people are protected against COVID-19, and normalcy is restored.
Read Also: Nigeria Receives 3.92Mn Doses of COVID-19 AstraZeneca Vaccine
Nigeria to Resume COVID-19 Vaccinations Next Week
