FG begins Johnson & Johnson single dose COVID-19 vaccination

The Federal Government Tuesday formally rolled out the Johnson & Johnson single dose of COVID-19 vaccination in the country.

The government also launched the SCALES 2.0 Strategy which entails the integration of COVID-19 vaccination with childhood routine immunization for eligible adults 18 years and above, and children zero to two years respectively. 

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SCALES is an acronym for service delivery, communication, accountability, logistics, electronic reporting, and supportive supervision for the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination. 

 It will be done leveraging mass vaccination campaigns, routine immunization fixed sessions, outreach services and mobile services.

The Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, said Nigeria had an adequate stock of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, with over 30 million doses in stock.

He urged all eligible persons yet to receive their vaccination to go to the nearest COVID-19 vaccination site and get vaccinated. 

“This single dose offers the same protection you get from two doses of AstraZeneca, Pfizer Bio-N-Tech and Moderna vaccines,” he said.

 He said the SCALES strategy had proven to be quite effective in ramping up COVID-19 vaccination coverage. 

Ehanire said as of February 18, Nigeria had administered over 20 million doses of COVID-19 vaccination, representing over 18 per cent of the 111,176,503 eligible population targeted for vaccination.