COVID-19: Nigeria receives 1.1m doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccine

The federal government says it received additional 1,123,200 doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.

Speaking with journalists in Abuja, Faisal Shuaib, executive director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCD), said the latest shipments were received as part of the 39,800,000 doses procured by the federal government.

Shuaib said the single-shot J&J vaccine was received last Saturday through the African Vaccine Acquisition Team (AVAT) of the African Union, a facility provided by AFREXIMBANK.

“The NAFDAC team has already taken samples for analysis and are currently scanning the codes to ensure proper serialization of the vaccine,” Shuaib said.

Shuaib added that the phase two vaccination exercise has fully commenced in all the 36 states and the federal capital territory (FCT).

He said a total of 3,600,858 Nigerians had received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine as of Monday.

“As at September 6 2021, a total of 3,600,858 eligible Nigerians have so far received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine. This is made up of 2,551,738 persons vaccinated with AstraZeneca vaccine and 1,049,120 persons vaccinated with Moderna vaccine,” he said.

“Therefore, 1,576,011 persons have been fully vaccinated with AstraZeneca vaccine. We have now restarted the administration of AstraZeneca as first dose in all designated health facilities.”

On the possibility of contracting COVID-19 despite having been vaccinated, Shuaib said: “The observation is that in these individuals, the disease is usually milder than those who were unvaccinated.

“Vaccination prevents one from severe disease, hospitalization and death. If our communities continue to remain unvaccinated, we will keep endangering our citizens most especially those who are vulnerable, elderly or immunocompromised.”

The federal government took delivery of the first batch of 177,600 doses of the J&J COVID-19 vaccine in August.

The government had said N122 billion was spent to procure 29 million doses of the J&J vaccine.

Shuaib had said the balance of the vaccine would be delivered in monthly tranches.

Nigeria began its second phase vaccination on August 16.