UPDATE - Nigeria will receive 100,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines January ending —PTF

 

The Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development

Agency (NPHCDA), Faisal Shuaib, Tuesday announced that Nigeria would receive 100,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of January.

He made this known at the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 briefing on Tuesday, where he said that a letter announcing the allocation in the first phase of the delivery of the vaccines was expected from the COVAX facility during the week.

“In the first phase through the COVAX facility, we expect to receive approximately 100,000 doses of the Pfizer and bioNtech vaccine by the end of January,” he said.

Shuaib noted that the country was expecting 42 million doses of vaccines in the second phase through the COVAX facility, which is an initiative run by the vaccine alliance, GAVI, to ensure equitable access to a COVID vaccine.

According to him, the second phase would be “a combination of all the available approved vaccines currently in the market”, adding that the vaccines would, however, cover only about 20 percent of Nigeria’s population.

Meanwhile, there have been reports around the country’s National Strategic Cold Store suggesting that the country may not be fully ready to receive and administer the COVID-19 vaccine.

Mr Shuaib explained that about 70 per cent of the total population needed to receive the COVID-19 vaccines to completely eradicate the virus.

According to him, only about 40 per cent would be vaccinated in 2021, while the remaining 30 per cent would be covered in 2022.

He disclosed that in line of the vaccination, priority would be given to frontline health workers, first responders, strategic country leadership and those that are elderly and with co-morbidities.

Shuaib also noted that there were some components on financing the cost of additional vaccines and delivery to the country.

“The first is the cost of procuring the vaccines, the second is the cost of delivering to every ward and the third is ensuring the PHCs and the health workers are available to deliver the vaccines safely and effectively,” he said.

Shuaib added that the PTF was “finalising the cumulative financial requirement for deploying vaccines”.

He said the “finalised figures will be made available soon”.