By John Ikani
The Federal Government, Monday, flagged off the Phase 2 vaccination of citizens against COVID-19 as it received additional 698,880 doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
Speaking at the flag-off ceremony held at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Jabi Abuja, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, said the second phase of vaccination will see the nationwide administration of about 4,000,080 million doses of Moderna vaccines donated by the United States Government.
Also to be administered are the 177,600 doses of Johnson and Johnson vaccines out of the 29,850,000 doses the federal government purchased through the Africa-Import-Export Bank (Afreximbank) and the African Union to people aged 18 years and above.
While noting that COVID-19 had seriously penetrated into the country, especially as “the third wave with the Delta variant of the virus is here with us”, Mustapha regretted that, “this has resulted in the upsurge of COVID-19 cases in the last few weeks.”
Assuring that “the Federal Government is committed to ensuring that Nigerians have unfettered access to COVID-19 vaccines as the country will continue to invest in and access safe and effective vaccines”, Mustapha said: ”It is now the responsibility of every citizen to register and get vaccinated so that we can achieve our desired herd immunity of vaccinating at least 70% of our eligible population.”
On his part, the Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Faisal Shuaib, disclosed at the event that the 698,880 doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine were part of the donation by the government of the United Kingdom, adding that it would be targeted at those due for the second doses of the vaccines.
“In the next couple of weeks, we will be expecting up to 3.9 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines to complement what we al- ready have,” he said.
