FG Reveals How It Will Disburse First Batch of COVID-19 Vaccine (See Details)

FG Reveals How It Will Disburse First Batch of COVID-19 Vaccine (See Details)

The Federal Government has disclosed details of how the first batch of COVID-19 vaccine doses will be distributed across states in Nigeria.

This was revealed during a webinar organized by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) tagged “Sensitisation Meeting with Media Gatekeepers on COVID-19 Vaccine Introduction”.

The executive director of the NPHCDA, Faisal Shuaib, Nigeria will receive 100,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine at the end of January.

Also speaking at the webinar, program manager, national emergency routine immunization coordination center, NPHCDA, Bassey Okposen, said states with a higher percentage of confirmed cases would be given additional doses.

According to him, the COVID-19 vaccines would be administered at the end of January and the beginning of February.

 “We have other sources of vaccine that are non-mRNA like the COVAX vaccine. The country and other stakeholders are working towards how they can get additional vaccines from the other countries like Russia and USA,” Okposen said.

 “We want to assure all Nigerians that the vaccine is safe and effective. The vaccine will be introduced in four phases and this is due to the availability and quantity of the vaccine that will come in at any given time.

 “When the vaccine arrives, in the plan, there’s going to be the prioritization of persons to be given the vaccination so as to optimise the available resources and vaccines that will be received and this will be based on global best practices.

 “In the first priority, when the limited doses first come in towards the end of this month and early February, will be the frontline health workers like immigration, airport, police and military on essential duties, those working in the labs and other medical practitioners.”

NPHCDA data shows that Kano, Lagos, Katsina, Kaduna, Bauchi and Oyo will receive more doses for health workers.

The breakdown is as follows:

Kano, 3,557

 Lagos, 3,131

Katsina, 2,361

 Kaduna, 2,074

Bauchi, 1,900

Oyo, 1,848

 Rivers, 1,766

Jigawa, 1,712

Niger, 1,558

Ogun, 1,473

 Sokoto, 1,468

Benue, 1,423

Borno, 1,416

Anambra, 1,379

Kebbi, 1,361

Zamfara, 1,336

Rivers, 1,306

 Imo, 1,267

Ondo, 1,228

Akwa Ibom, 1,161

Others included:

 Adamawa, 1,129; Edo, 1,104;

Plateau, 1,089; Enugu, 1,088;

Osun, 1,032; Kogi, 1,030;

Cross River, 1,023; Abia, 955;

 Gombe, 908; Yobe, 842;

Ekiti, 830; Taraba, 830;

Kwara, 815; Ebonyi, 747;

 Bayelsa, 589; FCT, 695; Nasarawa, 661.