COVID-19: FG targets 52m vaccine doses by 2022

The federal government yesterday said the country would receive about 52 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccines by April 2022.

It also said over 1.6 million eligible persons have been fully vaccinated against the pandemic six months after Nigeria commenced the vaccination exercise.

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The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Chairman Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, said the most potent way of surviving the virus is through vaccines, which science and research have presented.

Mustapha, who spoke in Abuja at the national briefing of the committee, urged all eligible persons to make themselves available to be vaccinated.

“There are various choices now. We have AstraZeneca, Moderna, Johnson and Johnson and we expect Pfizer to be delivered very soon. There will be enough vaccines to go round soon. By the second quarter of 2022, we will have received about 52 million doses of the vaccines,” Mustapha said.

He said efforts were on-going to implement the policy on Vaccine Mandate for all Federal Public Servants to ensure safety in the workplace and at home.

He also said that the ministries of Foreign Affairs and Aviation would continue to dialogue with the representatives of the UAE to resolve the issue of the Emirates flights between both countries.

He said India has been removed from the list of flagged countries in view of improved situation in that country

1.6m Nigerians fully vaccinated

The Executive-Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Faisal Shuaib, disclosed that over 1.6 million eligible persons have been fully vaccinated.

Shuaib said 1,692,315 persons have received two doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines, as approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

He also said that as of Monday evening, 4,052,756 eligible Nigerians have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccines.

“This is made up of 2,645,020 persons with the first dose of AstraZeneca vaccine and 1,407,736 persons with the first dose of moderna vaccine. A total of 1,692,315 eligible persons are fully vaccinated and we currently have a national average of 70.4 percent utilisation of the 2,000,040 doses of modern vaccines we received,” Shuaib said.

He urged states yet to publish their vaccination sites to do so across the various media and news platforms to enable people to locate their nearest vaccination sites.

Shuaib said states found to be condoning any acts of corruption in the process of vaccination would no longer be allocated vaccines.

He said the government was investigating reports of people trying to procure cards from health workers and that anyone found wanting would be prosecuted.