While smaller African countries have started taking delivery of Covid-19 vaccines, Nigeria- Africa’s most populous and largest economy is not yet sure of when it will receive and even commence vaccination.
This is particularly worrisome following the comments by the Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire after the Federal Executive Council Meeting on Wednesday, which suggests uncertainty over when the vaccines will be delivered in Nigeria.
The date for the delivery of vaccines into Nigeria has continued to shift since January. The country was expected to receive 100,000 doses of Pfizer vaccines, which did not come.
Though Faisal Shuaib , Executive Director, NPHCDA, on 22nd February, said Nigeria will get 4 million Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines from COVAX, in one week, the minister of health however said the delivery of the vaccines remains the decision of those delivering it and not Nigeria’s.
“That is not in our hands. It is the hand of the person who is bringing it to us”, Ehanire said.
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He added, “We have been told to open an account with Afreximbank under the African Union; we have done that already successfully because we are going to pay for that part of the vaccine. The COVAX vaccine is free, at no cost to us, it is made from donations.
“Now, the COVAX will start delivering to African countries before the end of February; that’s what they told us.
“But they didn’t tell us which country is first or which is second, which is third. So, COVAX begins to deliver before the end of February. And we hope that before the end of this month, it would be our turn or latest by the beginning of next month.”
Another major concern is that the registration for COVID-19 vaccination which authorities said they will set up is yet to kick off.
On February 16, Shuaib,
ED NPHCDA announced that registration of eligible Nigerians for COVID-19 vaccination will begin the same week.
Shuaib said a URL link will be deployed this week for the online registration of health workers and other eligible Nigerians aged 18 years and above to appropriately schedule them for COVID-19 vaccination.
But, that has not kicked off, nearly two weeks later. The Director, Logistics and health commodities, Kabura Daradara NPHCDA however told BusinessDay that the registration has not commenced because the agency is still working on the website and other methods to ensure seamless registration.
She however assured that the registration will commence before the vaccines come into the country.
Nigeria is hanging on to hope that the vaccines will come in soon enough, while other West African countries who have recorded lower cases have received the vaccines and commenced vaccination.
On 24th February, Ghana became the first West African country to receive 600,000 doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines from COVAX facility despite lower COVID-19 cases compared to Nigeria.
According to the Africa Centre for Disease Control, as of February 22, 2021, Ghana had recorded a total of 80,253 infections, with 577 deaths and 73,018 recoveries. But Nigeria recorded 152,074 infections, 1,839 deaths, and 128,619 recoveries in the same period.
Nigeria, as at February, 24th have recorded 153,842 cases of COVID-19 and 1885 deaths.
Also, Senegal kicked off its wider COVID-19 vaccination campaign on Wednesday, after an official launch ceremony the day before saw dozens of officials vaccinated to demonstrate its safety.
Around 100,000 people are expected to be vaccinated with 200,000 doses purchased from China’s Sinopharm, which arrived in Senegal last week.
Senegal has so far recorded 33,242 cases and 832 deaths on account of the disease.
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