NAFDAC: We’ll ensure COVID vaccines donated have 6-month expiration date

Mojisola Adeyeye, director-general of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), says the agency is working with international partners to ensure Nigeria gets vaccines with longer expiration date.

More than one million doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine expired in Nigeria in November. They were destroyed by NAFDAC and the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) at Gosa Dumpsite in Abuja.

Speaking with NAN in an interview, Adeyeye said the expired vaccines had very short expiration dates.

She said this made it impossible for them to be administered in time owing to logistics.

“When developed countries started using vaccine for many months, we didn’t have access to them until we started receiving donations, not just through COVAX alone but from some countries also,” NAN quoted her as saying.

“The expiration date was shorter than what it was supposed to be and between the time we tested and start using it, there was no enough time and that was the only reason not because we were careless.

“But going forward, we are working with international partners to ensure the expiration date of any vaccine we will be receiving are up to five or six months.”

Speaking on the Omicron variant of COVID-19, the DG said studies on the variants was still ongoing globally.

She advised Nigerians to continue to adhere to the safety measures given by the various health authorities to further curb the spread of the virus.

“A lot is still not known about Omicron because studies are still going on globally about the variant,” she said.

“The only way to keep safe is to continue with the usage of mask, maintain social distancing, wash our hands regularly and avoid crowded areas to stay safe.”