The Federal government has said that Nigeria will receive a new batch of 4 million doses of Moderna vaccine, latest by Sunday, August 1, 2021.
The arrival of the new batch of the vaccine is expected to provide another opportunity for authorities to advance the protection of Nigerians against Covid-19 with the country expected to resume vaccination by next week.
This disclosure was made by the Executive Director of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Faisal Shuaib, during an interview on the NTA network news on Friday night.
Shuaib said that the vaccine would be taken to various storage facilities across the country for immediate deployment for the vaccination exercise.
What the Executive Director of NPHCDA is saying
Shuaib said, “In Less than 72 hours from now, Nigeria will be receiving four million doses of Modena vaccines from the Covax facility and we are excited that this will be another opportunity for us to advance the protection of Nigerians against COVID-19 virus.”
He said that the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) on Covid-19 had made adequate preparations for the storage and distribution of the vaccine by procuring 60 ultra-cold chain storage facilities across the country.
He explained that the Modena vaccine, expected to arrive on Sunday, requires ultra-cold temperatures ranging from 25 to 50 degrees Celsius whose storage equipment has been procured and installed.
Shuaib pointed out that as soon as the vaccines arrive, vaccination exercises will start by next week, assuring that other vaccines like the Oxford Astrazeneca vaccine, Pfizer and Johnson and Johnson vaccines will be arriving in the country in September.
What you should know
- It can be recalled that earlier in March, Nigeria received about 4 million doses of Astrazeneca vaccine out of the expected 16 million doses under the COVAX facility, a WHO-backed initiative that provides for equitable distribution of vaccines, especially among poorer countries.
- These vaccines were administered by health workers on Nigerians especially senior public officers, persons with comorbidity and the elderly under the first phase of vaccination exercise.
- The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) had earlier approved Modena (Rovi Pharma Madrid, Spain) AstraZeneca AZD1222 (South Korea Bioscience Co Limited (Republic of Korea)) Sputnik V (Gamaleya National Centre of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Russia) for emergency use authorization ahead of the arrival of the vaccine.
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