The Nigerian Government has signed off to receive 29.8 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine through the African Union (AU).
The Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Faisal Shu’aib announced this in Abuja, at the National Joint Media briefing by the Presidential Steering Committe on Covid-19 in Nigeria.
According to him, Nigeria is also expecting deliveries of vaccines through the Covax facility by the end of May or early June 2021.
“By this time, we would have completed the process of administering the second doses of the Astrazeneca vaccine to those who got the first dose. In the meantime, NAFDAC is continuing discussions with manufacturers and examining their vaccines, in anticipation of Emergency Use Listing from the World Health Organisation. We hope that these will mitigate the negative concerns about the delayed deliveries of AstraZeneca vaccines, thereby ensuring the sustained supply of vaccines for smooth continuation of our vaccination exercise,” Dr Shu’aib e said.
Deepening collaboration
To further strengthen vaccine security and accountability, he stated that the PSC is deepening its collaboration with the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Shu’aib said; “Our partnership in this regard is also aimed at further curbing cases of vaccine mismanagement and other anticipated sharp practices at the vaccination sites.
The Agency has taken delivery of 2,250 tablets as donation from CACOVID, to help health facilities with the registration process and making it less cumbersome for data capture in our electronic data register.
” We therefore encourage all eligible residents of Nigeria to continue to register for vaccination through the NPHCDA website, and we guarantee that every registered person will be scheduled and vaccinated in the coming phases of the exercise accordingly.”
“Let me state from available scientific records and investigations by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the Oxford/Astrazeneca vaccine, among others, is safe and efficacious. Our national regulatory body, NAFDAC has also certified that the vaccine is safe and strongly recommends its continued use for all eligible age groups,” he explained.
Dr Shu’aib also reiterated that the PSC would continue to collaborate with the NAFDAC Pharmacovigilance team to monitor the administration of the vaccine and document any adverse reactions following the vaccination with the COVID-19 vaccine.
He said; “We believe this would further assure Nigerians that the government has made a safe choice of vaccine for protecting our people against Covid-19.
“Having provided the above information, so far, we have documentation of Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFI). There have been 8,711 cases of mild AEFIs, while there have been 52 instances of moderate to severe AEFIs. Kaduna, Cross River, Yobe, Kebbi and Lagos continue to lead other states in terms of the numbers of cases.”
In furtherance of its sensitisation and mobilisation efforts for successful Covid-19 vaccination campaign, the NPHCDA in collaboration with the PSC, NOA, Development partners and other stakeholders, we are conducting Town Hall meetings in all the six (6) geo-political zones to address public concerns and hesitancy on the Covid-19 vaccine and vaccination.
Mercy Chukwudiebere
