The Federal Government has said that the total number vaccine available to Nigeria is about 51m doses.

The federal government also disclosed that the country has vaccinated 15,792,392 (14.1%) of her eligible population with the 1st dose.

Executive Director/CEO, NPHCDA, Dr Faisal Shuaib, made this disclosure in his remarks at the official handover of 2 million doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccines donated by the European Union to Nigeria on Monday, in Abuja.

The ED who received the vaccines on behalf of the government reiterated that “the onus is upon us to make rational and effective use of the vaccines”.

He assures that, Nigeria is committed to a safe, equitable and effective COVID-19 vaccination programme.

“With our attention now intensively focused on the states, we are hoping to see a more rapid vaccine coverage over the next couple of weeks,” he stressed.

He noted that “the Federal Government of Nigeria had earlier in 2021 procured 39,850,000 doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccine from the AFREXIM Bank through the African Union. With today’s donation of 1,936,050 doses by the European Union.”

He added: “At the moment, Nigeria currently has in country 12,916,450 doses of the Johnson and Johnson vaccines.

“We will be focusing the J&J vaccines at the moment on those who are in the hard-to-reach areas (riverine areas, desert areas and security-compromised areas).”

“This is because the Johnson & Johnson vaccine requires only a single dose for full vaccination. “This way our health workers will be able to do what is called a ‘touch and go’ without comprising on their safety,” said he.

On worries about quality of the vaccines, he said: “Let me also mention that the availability of different vaccine brands does not in any way mean that some categories of people are selected for high quality vaccines while others are targeted for low quality vaccines.

“All COVID-19 vaccines approved by the World Health Organization are safe and can deliver adequate protection against the disease.

“While choice of vaccine is left for eligible persons to make, it is important to note that no particular vaccine brand is preferable to the other.

He informs that the government is using the platform of COVID-19 vaccination to also make available access to other primary healthcare interventions.

“We have been engaging with the poor performing states to identify areas where they would require more support from us and to also help them in identifying areas where they can improve in order to ramp up their vaccination coverage.

“Last week, we were in Enugu State where we engaged with all the stakeholders in the five South East states,” Shuaib stated.

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