Nigeria’s Health Minister, Dr Osagie Ehanire has said that the next set of vaccines are expected in August through the COVAX programme, disclosing that Nigeria is on track to fully vaccinate 2 million people (2 doses ) from the 3.92 million AstraZeneca vaccines received in March.
This was disclosed in a pressed briefing held by Dr Ehanire and Dr Faisal Shuaib of the National Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), on Thursday, at the statehouse.
“As of today, 1,961,883 of the targeted eligible Nigerians have received their first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Nigeria is adopting a whole-of-family approach to Covid vaccination. This means encouraging women who are coming for vaccination to come with their children under 2, to receive routine immunizations where needed. Also, BP testing, etc for persons who require it,” the NPHCDA boss said.
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The FG assured that everybody who has received a first dose of the COVID-19 Vaccine in Nigeria is guaranteed their second dose from current supplies.
They added that timelines have changed regarding the arrival of the next batch of vaccines in Nigeria, due to circumstances in India. However, the Health Minister assured that the next set of vaccines are scheduled to arrive in August.
The FG explained that some African countries made the mistake of using all their initial supply for Dose 1, and have no supply for dose 2 due to value chain constraints, “As soon as it was clear next batch would be delayed, plan changed from Dose 1 for 4m to Doses 1&2 for 2m” they said.
