Olusola Bello
The National Primary Health Care Development Agency says it has officially ended the country’s first phase of COVID-19 vaccination, adding that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is 88 per cent portent against the Delta variant detected in the country.
This is even as the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in its report disclosed that the country has recorded 161 new cases, with Lagos State, still remaining the epicenter of the virus in Nigeria. The State recorded 153 new cases, while Gombe recorded two, Oyo and Rivers one each and the FCT four cases respectively.
Dr Faisal Shuaib, Executive Director of NPHCDA, disclosed this known at a news conference in Abuja on Tuesday.
Nigeria he said received the first consignment of about 3.92 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine on March 2, 2021, through the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Assess Facility.
COVAX is an initiative co-led by the vaccine alliance, GAVI and the World Health Organisation (WHO) to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines by dividing about two billion doses across 92 low and middle-income countries.
The facility promises access to vaccines for up to 20 per cent of participating countries’ population with an initial supply beginning in the first quarter of the year to immunise three per cent of their populations.
Meanwhile, the NPHCDA boss said Nigeria had successfully vaccinated 3,938,945 eligible people across the 36 states of the federation and the FCT, representing 98 per cent utilisation of the 4,024,000 doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine.
Shuaib said, “This comprises 2,534,205 people who have been vaccinated for first dose, and 1,404,205 who received the second dose of the vaccine.
“In the course of this exercise, the country recorded 14,550 cases of mild/moderate Adverse Event Following Immunization, with 148 cases considered to be severe. However, we did not record any case of death associated with COVID-19 vaccination.”
The executive director noted that the country had officially ended the first phase of its strategic COVID-19 vaccination plan and was now preparing to commence the second phase in the next few weeks.
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He added that “we have also received communication for the delivery of the following vaccine shipments in the coming months.
“They are 3,924,000 doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca by end of July or early August 2021 from the COVAX facility, 3,930,910 doses of Pfizer-Bio-N Tech COVID-19 vaccine in August from the COVAX facility donated by the U.S Government.
“There will also be 3,577,860 doses of Pfizer-Bio-N Tech COVID-19 vaccine in Q3 from the COVAX facility, 29,850,000 doses of Johnson & Johnson (Jassen) COVID-19 vaccine by the end of September, that will arrive in batches from the African Union Commission.”
“We are making every effort and are confident that with continued support, Nigeria will be able to make significant utilisation of the vaccines that would be supplied to the country.”
He disclosed that the NPHCDA was putting in place necessary logistics for storage, distribution, security and accountability for the range of vaccines the country was expecting.
“To this end, the Federal Government procured 60 units of U701 ultra cold chain equipment, and as we speak, about 37 of them have been deployed to the 36 states and the FCT in preparation to receive the vaccines that would require ultra-cold temperature of below 40 to 85 degrees.
“It is important to stress that anyone who is 18 years and above is eligible to take the COVID-19 vaccine, including pregnant and lactating women. I therefore call on every eligible person to register and ensure that they make themselves available for vaccination on due dates.
“Furthermore, with the leadership of Eminent Nigerians, the Federal Ministry of Health and its agencies would continue to support our local partner, Biovaccines Nigeria limited, toward local vaccine production.”
With the Delta variant detected in the country, Shuaib said
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in its report has disclosed that the country has recorded 161 new cases.
Lagos State, which still remains the epicenter of the virus in Nigeria, recorded 153 new cases, while Gombe recorded two, Oyo and Rivers one each and the FCT four cases respectively.
This now brings the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 168,713.
164,476 have recovered, while 2,124 have unfortunately died.
This comes days after the NCDC said it had detected the Delta COVID-19 variant in the country.
“The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has detected a confirmed case with the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant, also known as lineage B.1.617.2,” the health agency said in a statement last Thursday.
“The variant was detected in a traveler following the routine travel test required of all international travelers and genomic sequencing at the NCDC National Reference Laboratory, Abuja.”
The NCDC, however, assured Nigerians that the federal government has put measures in place to combat the disease, asking them to adhere to the recommended safety protocols.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Delta variant has an increased transmissibility, and has raised concerns across the globe.
It has also been detected in over 90 countries and is expected to spread to more nations.
The variant has also been linked to a surge in cases in countries where it is the dominant strain in circulation,” the NCDC explained. “There are ongoing studies to understand the impact of the variant on existing vaccines and therapeutics.”
