The federal government has shifted the second batch of vaccination earlier scheduled to commence tomorrow – Tuesday, 10th August 2021 to Monday, August 16th.
Mohammed Ohitoto, head -public relations unit, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) who disclosed this in Abuja on Monday, said the country will kick-start its second phase of vaccination with the over 4 million doses of Moderna vaccines donated by the US government next week Monday – August 16th.
The Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) on COVID-19 in a statement on Sunday had announced the definite postponement of the national flag-off exercise of the vaccination programme “due to unforeseen circumstances”.
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The Moderna vaccine had been listed for emergency use by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and approved by NAFDAC.
But, there are concerns that the 4,000,080 doses of the Moderna vaccines that arrived Nigeria on 2nd August, 2021 are not yet added to WHO Emergency use listing for Moderna mRNA 1237 vaccine.
The vaccines were donated by the United States Government to Nigeria and delivered through the COVAX facility
The vaccine doses were received by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) on behalf of the federal government and stored at the country’s National Strategic Cold Store near Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja.
It is the second batch of vaccines received by Nigeria after the country had run out of the initial four million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine received from the COVAX facility.
Efforts to contact NAFDAC for further information proved abortive.
