Oyo govt conducts ‘sterility test’ on COVID-19 vaccines over safety concerns

Oyo State government said on Wednesday the 127,740 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines received from the Federal Government last week were subjected to a sterility test.

The state’s Commissioner for Health, Dr. Bashir Bello, disclosed this to journalists at the end of the weekly state’s Executive Council meeting in Ibadan.

Bello said complaints and rejection of the vaccine by some countries in Europe over safety concerns prompted the government to subject the vaccine to the sterility test.

The commissioner said: “The sterility test is to determine if the vaccines do not actually have other secondary forms of infective substance. These are being carried out at our two laboratories and in the next few days, we will have the result.”

He said the outcome of the sterility test and other precautionary measures would determine when to administer the vaccines to the people of Oyo State.

READ ASLO: Oyo receives 127,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine

Bello said: “In Oyo State, have to take some basic precautionary measures. One of such was the provision of a safe place to keep the vaccines to ensure their potency.

“The type that we got is the one that can only operate between +2 degrees centigrade and +8 degrees centigrade.”

He said three centres were being prepared for the vaccination.

“There are hospitals and immunisation centres already in existence in local government areas. These are temporary centres for people specifically in large areas, particularly high incident areas and the third centre will be for specialised groups,” the commissioner stated.

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