By JOHN NWOKOCHA, Abuja

Baring last minutes changes or any unforeseen delays, Nigeria will take delivery of the following vaccines: 3,924,000 doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca/Moderna by end of July or early August 2021 from the COVAX facility 3,930,910 doses of Pfizer-Bio-N Tech/Moderna COVID-19 vaccine in August from the COVAX facility donated by the United States Government, 3,577,860 doses of Pfizer-Bio-N Tech/Moderna 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.

Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Faisal Shuaib, made this disclosure, Tuesday, in Abuja, during a press conference.

He also confirmed that the federal government has received communication for the delivery of the following vaccine shipments in the coming months.

He said that Agency is putting in place all necessary logistics for storage, distribution, security, and accountability for the range of vaccines we are expecting.

According to him, the federal government has procured 60 units of U701 ultra cold chain equipment, about 37 of which have been deployed to all the 36 States and FCT in preparation to receive all COVID-19 vaccines that would require ultra-cold temperature of below 40 to 85 degrees.

Shuaib said Nigeria has successfully vaccinated 3,938,945 eligible persons across 36 states and FCT, representing 98% utilization of the 4,024,000 doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine it received from COVAX facility in March 2021.

“This comprises of 2,534,205 people who have been vaccinated for first dose, and 1,404,205 who have received their second dose of the vaccine”. He said.

However, he appealed to the public to remain on alert over the increasing cases of the pandemic. “We need to remain on alert and continue to provide Nigerians with factual information to enable them see the need to get vaccinated against COVID-19”. He cautioned.

He emphasized the need to maintain non-pharmaceutical or public health measures as fresh cases of the pandemic surface. “With the detection of the Delta Variant of COVID-19 in Nigeria, it is important that Nigerians continue to observe non-pharmaceutical or public health measures such as wearing of facemask, social distancing and hand hygiene in order to curb the transmission of the disease, while we await additional doses of the COVID-19 vaccines”.

He said the country has officially ended the first phase of its strategic COVID-19 vaccination plan and is now preparing to commence the second phase in the next few weeks.

“In the course of this exercise, the country recorded 14,550 cases of mild/moderate Adverse Event Following Immunization (AEFI), with only 148 cases considered to be severe. However, we did not record any case of death associated with COVID-19 vaccination.

Speaking further on vaccination eligibility Shuaib said that anyone who is 18 years and above, including pregnant and lactating women is eligible to take COVID-19 vaccine.

On local vaccine production, he said the process of supporting our local partner, Biovaccines Nigeria limited is continuing.

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