Admin l Tuesday, April 27, 2021
LAGOS, Nigeria – A total of 1.4 million Nigerians have been vaccinated throughout the federation. Chief Executive Officer, National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Faisal Shuaib made the revelation during a virtual meeting with U.S Secretary of State, Mr. Anthony Blinken and major stakeholders in the health sector in Nigeria.
He said the number vaccinated is about 500,000 less than the 2 million people that the Federal Government wants to vaccinate in the first phase. Dr. Shuaib noted that 4 million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine have been received from the COVAS facility and that government plans to give 2 doses to those already vaccinated pending when additional vaccines are received.
“We are keenly aware that when Nigeria got four million doses as a result of the collaboration through the COVAX facility, which couldn’t have been possible without the support of the U.S. Government, we know that many other countries still haven’t accessed the vaccine. This is why the collaboration of the U.S. Government with many other governments under the platform of COVAX is very, very critical if we are going to end this pandemic”, he said during the meeting.
He announced that as a result of the collaboration with the U.S. CDC, Nigeria has been able to come up with a hybrid solution in terms of our rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines.
“So not only are we using traditional metrics by asking our health workers to come to the health facility and get their vaccines, but we’ve also learned from what has happened in the United States in terms of using electronic data, technology to invite people to schedule their vaccinations. And because of the support from the AFENET and the U.S. CDC, as it were, we’ve been able to push these types of technology so that in the future we’ll be able to have a routine immunization data system that we will have learned from the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines”, he said.
Dr. Shuaib said there has been a gradual overcoming of vaccine hesitancy. But that the United States has been a very strong partner in that amazing and compelling story of how partnership and solidarity can help to overcome COVID-19, like the wild polio viruses.
