FG begins second phase of COVID vaccination as UK donates 698,880 AstraZeneca doses

Faisal Shauib, the executive director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), says Nigeria will take delivery of 698,880 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine today.

Shauib made the announcement on Monday during the commencement of the second phase of vaccination in the country.

He said the 698,880 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine are a donation from the United Kingdom.

He said the fresh batch will be administered to persons who are due for their second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Shuaib said: “We will also be receiving today 698,880 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, a donation from the UK Government through the COVAX facility. These doses will be targeted at those due for their second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

“In the next couple of weeks, we will be expecting up to 3.9million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines to complement what we already have and to ensure that we cover not only those who will be taking their second Astrazeneca vaccine but also for those who will want to take their first dose of this vaccine.”

Shuaib added that the first tranche of the one-dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine will be administered to those in hard-to-reach areas, given that such persons “may find it difficult to leave their homes to the health facility for second vaccination”.

He said: “In preparations for the commencement of Phase 2 vaccination, we have trained 40,739 state-level personnel comprising of our health workers and partners on our phase 2 strategic vaccine roll-out plan with attention on what we will be doing differently around logistics, data, and communications to improve the overall delivery of vaccination in the country.

“We are fully aware that because Nigeria has started receiving different brands of COVID-19 vaccine, a lot of questions and concerns are being raised on what brand differences would mean to the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine.”

Shuaib assured Nigerians that all brands of COVID-19 vaccines used in the country are “safe and effective especially against the Delta variant”.

The federal government had received over four million doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine from the United States on August 1.