According to the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Nigeria has vaccinated over a million eligible citizens so far, out of a total of 70 percent of the nation’s population.
The NPHCDA announced this on its official Twitter account on Thursday.
The nation has set an optimistic target of vaccinating 40% of its over 200 million citizens by the end of 2021, and 70% by the end of 2022, in order to achieve herd immunity against COVID-19.
The country began vaccination on March 5, 2021, with healthcare staff, who are most at risk of illness, serving as the first responders.
It was reported that the vaccine will be distributed in four stages, beginning with health staff, frontline workers, the COVID-19 rapid response squad, the laboratory network, police officers, gas station workers, and political leaders.
“Phase 2 – Older adults aged 50 and over. Those between the ages of 18 and 49 that have co-morbidities
“Phase 3 – Those in elevated disease burden states/LGAs that skipped phases 1 and 2.
“Phase 4 – Additional qualified population when vaccinations become available,” it said.
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According to the immunization body, as of April 15, 2021, only 1,051.096 shots had been conducted in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), comprising 52.2 percent of the country’s qualifying citizens to be vaccinated.
Recall that the Nation received 3.94 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines by COVAX, a UN-backed initiative that offers free vaccines to up to 20% of participating countries’ populations.
The shipment is one of a total of 16 million doses that will be shipped to Nigeria in batches over the next few months.
Furthermore, on March 21, 2021, the country received another 300,000 doses of the same vaccine from telecoms giant, MTN, and on April 6, the government of India sent 100,000 doses of Covishield COVID-19 vaccines to Nigeria.
The COVISHIELD vaccine, a brand of Oxford AstraZeneca, is used in over 71 countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, India, and Brazil.
According to health experts, Nigeria is still far from meeting its goal, with only around 4.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines available in the world.
Due to insufficient vaccine supply, the federal government ordered states to suspend vaccination after using half of the doses allotted to them, because the country did not know when the next delivery of AstraZeneca vaccinations would arrive.
“We conclude that in a case where we still do not know when the next shipment of AstraZeneca vaccinations will come, it is best to thoroughly vaccinate patients.
“And so that we can assume we have a pool of people who have been properly vaccinated since this vaccine comes in two doses,” said the NPHCDA.
