Nigerian govt to commence administration of second dose of AstraZeneca vaccine 

The Federal Government has revealed the commencement of administration of the second doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines on eligible Nigerians who received the first shots.

This was contained in a statement issued by Dr Faisal Shuaib, Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), during the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) briefing in Abuja on Tuesday.

Shuaib advised health workers, frontline workers aged 18 years and above, and persons aged 50 years and above to visit any designated vaccination site to receive the vaccine free of charge.

“I want to remind you that the eligibility period between the first and second doses of the vaccine has been expanded from 12 weeks to between six to 12 weeks, in line with the scientific recommendation provided by the World Health Organisation’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE on immunization).

”The PSC has approved the second dose of the Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccination in all states of the federation and the FCT.

“We have redeployed Senior Supervisors to the states and have continued to monitor activities with daily evening review meetings to determine the status of the COVID-19 vaccine implementation in all states and the FCT.

READ ALSO: Governors reaffirm safety of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine

“These meetings, allows us to receive reports from the sub-national level on how the campaigns are proceeding, what challenges they face, and how we can proactively anticipate and resolve any impending challenges.

”The meetings also provide an avenue to troubleshoot and resolve any operational hurdles as they emerge, before they become problematic,” he explained.

The NPHCDA boss urged Nigerians to continue to cooperate with vaccinators who were providing an incredibly important service to the nation amid this global crisis.

”We are continuing to optimise our registration and immunization data system, to maximize the efficiency of this system,” he stated. 

By Mayowa Oladeji

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now