Nigerian government has received 4,400,000 doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines donated by the Government and people of Spain to Nigeria.
Speaking at the brief ceremony to mark the formal delivery of the vaccines by the Spanish government, the Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Faisal Shuaib said that 29,651,708 eligible persons had received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccines so far.
He said that the figure represents 23.4 percent of the eligible population.
Dr. Shuaib also said that the federal government was intensifying efforts to ensure that 70 per cent of the country’s eligible population are vaccinated.
“It is in furtherance of this initiative and the commitment of the Government of Spain that we are here today to officially receive, on behalf of the federal government of Nigeria, 4,400,000 doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines donated by the Government and people of Spain to Nigeria,” he said.
Dr. Shuaib intimated the Spanish Ambassador, Juan Ignatio Sell, that the donation came when it was most needed as the country was rapidly ramping up full vaccination coverage.
He said the single-dose regimen of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine would enable the agency move rapidly towards achieving herd immunity.
He noted that the figures so far posted by the country were a far cry from the target of 70 per cent of the eligible population.
“However, these donations will help towards achieving our target. If we keep up with vaccination, the likely scenario is that even though the virus continues to evolve, the severity of the disease will reduce over time, as the immunity increases due to vaccination.
“But if majority of our eligible population in Nigeria and globally continue to remain unvaccinated, what we may see is that a more virulent and highly transmissible variant could emerge, sooner or later which would be worse than any variant seen,” he said.
The Executive Director also said: “New estimates from the World Health Organisation (WHO) showed that the full death toll associated directly or indirectly with the COVID-19 pandemic which is described as excess mortality, between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2021 globally was approximately 15 million (range 13.3 million to 16.6 million).
“This means that we lost about 15million persons globally within two years as a result of the pandemic. This is heart wrenching,” he added.
The Spanish Ambassador to Nigeria, Ambassador Juan Ignatio Sell, said that Spain was most pleased and a little proud, to be handing over the morning 4.4 million vaccines to the Nigerian authorities
“Our largest donation to an African country, and that takes us over 70 million vaccines donated worldwide. Spain is not alone in this endeavor. This donation is part of a larger one together with the EU and other member states, and a very fine example of the many things that we do as Team Europe in Nigeria. When visiting Nigeria’s cold storage facilities and seeing all those vaccines, we become aware of the long way that lays ahead to get them into people’s arms,” she said.
She also praised the National Primary Health Care Development Agency and its Executive Director, Dr. Faisal Shuaib, and UNICEF for their tireless campaign to get Nigeria vaccinated against Covid-19.
“We speak at a time of what they call pandemic fatigue, when images of a mask free world can give us the false impression that this is over. Faced with worrisome figures of vaccine hesitancy, we need to change the narrative and insist that if restrictions are being lifted, it is because we have done the right things and the first one is to have people vaccinated. This has been a long fight for the International Community and for each and every country. In 2020 the goal was to develop an effective vaccine, in 2021 the challenge was to produce and distribute it, today in 2022 we need to put those vaccines within people’s reach, and strengthening public health systems is vital to achieve it,” she added.
