Thirty four states in Nigeria have received the Moderna vaccines for administration to the people against the Covid-19.
The Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu stated this on Thursday while briefing the media after Thursday’s meeting of the National Economic Council.
Governor Sanwo-Olu said that the second round of vaccination against the Coronavirus has commenced in various states across Nigeria.
He said; “Except for two states, all states in the country have various amounts of the moderna vaccine. And most of them have started the vaccination exercise. This is being coordinated by the NPHCDA under Dr. Faisal Shuaib.”
Johnson & Johnson vaccines
The Governor said that over 28 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and others from Astra Zeneca and Moderna would be delivered to Nigeria in September.
“We are expecting that within the end of September there will be in the country, quite a significant amount of vaccine doses coming in from Astra Zeneca and Moderna.
“A huge quantity is expected from Johnson & Johnson. We are told that all of these would come in before the end of September.
“That will increase significantly our ability and capacity and our ability to be able to dispense vaccinations right through the country more,” Governor Sanwo-Olu explained.
He said; “We are actually expecting tens of millions from Johnson and Johnson alone. That will be up to 28million doses. Council was briefed about that was told that we should expect all of that by the end of September.”
Vaccine advocacy
According to Sanwo-Olu, the Council encouraged states to continue the vaccination advocacy and ensure that people do not relax measures to contain the spread of the virus.
He stated that “ States were told to continue to push their various primary health officials to ensure that we did not relax in any form and that they continue to encourage people to come forward to receive their doses of vaccines.
“ It was also mentioned that for people who had received the first dose of Astra Zeneca should wait for another dose of the same Astra Zeneca.
“The ones that are being given now is the Moderna vaccine. They should not mix one vaccine with the other. They should just wait when we have Astra Zeneca, they will be able to take the second dose.”
Governor Sanwo-Olu said that the Council urged states to continue to push and ensure that everybody was on board and to keep with the non pharmaceutical protocols.
The meeting was presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
Mercy Chukwudiebere
