COVID-19: Nigeria vaccinates over 600,000 people
Over 600,000 Nigerians have received their first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines, according to the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA).
As of Tuesday evening, 638,291 eligible Nigerians have been vaccinated in 35 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), according to the agency.
Only Kogi State is yet to commence COVID-19 vaccination.
Kogi was not supplied with the COVID-19 vaccines because their cold store is still under repairs following vandalisation during the EndSARS protest, the Executive Director of NPHCDA, Faisal Shuaib, said at a briefing.
But the agency in a tweet on Monday said Mr Shuaib met with Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, to resolve issues around vaccine storage and provision of security at the Cold Store.
Lagos, the epicentre of the disease in Nigeria, has vaccinated 122, 714 people, the data shows. This makes it the highest in the country.
Ogun has vaccinated 50,052 people, closely followed Kaduna with 43,601, Katsina- 36,075, Bauchi- 33,157 and Kwara- 28,681.
The states with the lowest number of vaccinated people are Abia-225 and Taraba – 878.
Having received 3.94 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines in early March, Nigeria commenced vaccination beginning with healthcare workers.
The country recently received another 300,000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines from telecom giant, MTN, as part of the latter’s contribution to Africa.
The country is also expected to receive more doses of vaccines over the next few months.
The Nigerian government had announced its plan to vaccinate 109 million people against the COVID-19 virus over a period of two years.
Health authorities said only eligible population from 18 years and above will be vaccinated.
Although there has been controversy over the safety of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine which prompted some countries to suspend its use, Nigeria has chosen to continue the rollout of the vaccines, saying it is safe for use.
The World Health Organisation and European Medicines Agency (EMA) have also declared the vaccine safe.
No Nigerian has declared any serious side effect from taking the vaccine, Mr Shuaib said.
Nigeria is having a steady run of low COVID-19 infection figures as the country on Monday recorded its lowest daily infection figure in five months with 48 new cases.
This brings the total number of COVID-19 cases in the country to 162,641. A total of 2,049 deaths have also been recorded, according to an update published by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).(Premium Times)
=============