THE National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Friday,disclosed that Nigeria has taken delivery of over 10m doses of vaccines so far in its ongoing efforts at tacking the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.
The disclosure came as it received 501,600 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines donated by the Government of France to Nigeria through the COVAX facility.
Speaking at the agency’s National Strategic Cold room, Abuja,where the vaccines said to have been received in Nigeria on Monday, October 4, 2021,NPHCDA Executive Director,Dr Faisal Shuaib, explained that the vaccines included Astrazeneca,Modern,Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines.
Hr expressed federal government’s appreciation to the donors,especially the latest being from France.
Emphasizing on the latest donation,Dr Shuaib said:” It is indeed gratifying to say that France has not only been a dependable development ally to Nigeria but has been quite brotherly in all ramifications.”
According to him,”The donation of over half a million doses of AstraZeneca to Nigeria is a demonstration of France’s confidence in Nigeria’s capability as an active and progressive partner in the global fight to end the COVID-19 pandemic.”
He said “Nigeria’s vaccine storage facilities have remained efficient and well maintained. No standards are compromised in logistics requirements for effective management and utilization of all COVID-19 vaccines available in Nigeria.”
Faisal said,”The Federal Government has in place the necessary measures to ensure monitoring and accountability of the vaccines.”
” We track utilization of all COVID-19 vaccines in all states of the federation and receive daily report from our senior supervisors and state Immunization officers who are on the field to monitor the management and administration of the vaccines,”he explained.
According to him,”Federal Government of Nigeria is committed to safe, equitable and effective COVID-19 vaccination of all eligible persons in the country.”
” We will continue to work with our development partners and engage with all stakeholders to sustain transparency in our vaccination program.
We are also committed to fighting misinformation and disinformation with continued support from our professional mass media community. We have been engaging with the communities using the lessons we learnt from polio eradication to ensure only true and verified information are shared and this has helped with increase in COVID-19 vaccines uptake across the country,”hr further said.
