Health
NIGERIA is no longer expecting the 100,000 doses of the Pfizer/BIONtech vaccine through the COVEX facility but has been allocated about a 16million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
This decision was reached through the epidemiological and equity assessment carried out by the World Health Organization, WHO. These vaccines will start arriving in the country in batches, starting from late February.
Although Nigeria was considered one of the ready countries to receive the Pfizer vaccine, the distribution is intended to achieve public health value; it was impractical to provide the vaccine to every capable country due to its limited quantity.
According to the WHO’s regional director, a multi-agency committee had to carry out a further review of the selection process for better distribution.
A number of factors were considered in allocating the 320,000 available doses of the Pfizer vaccine to the 13 countries in Africa. They include mortality rate from the covid-19, the number of new cases, the population of the countries involved, and availability of appropriate Cold Chain Equipment.
According to Faisal Shuaib, the executive director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, NPHVDA, the AstraZeneca vaccine is in fact a welcome development, as it will enable a wider reach of the population, and it is also a better option using Nigeria’s routine Cold Chain System; even though Nigeria still has an Ultracold Chain capacity that would be able to store more than 400,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
Findings also show that the South African Government has suspended their vaccination with the Oxford/Astrazeneca vaccine because it was less efficacious against the B.1.351 strain of the covid-19 virus, which is the predominant strain in South Africa. The NCDC is therefore intensively working with the NIMR, and other researchers to ensure that it finds this strain from samples that has been collected.
As part of the ongoing awareness programme, the NCDC also met with the National Youth Council of Nigeria, NYC, the leadership the Radio, Television, and the Theater Art Workers Union, RATTAWU, and plans to meet over 50 more organizations and critical stakeholders to provide them with factual information that can ensure the production of educative contents on the safety of Covid-19 Vaccines.
Shuaib also promised that the NCDC will continue to work closely with NAFDAC to ensure that only a Vaccine that is effective against the predominant Covid-19 strain in Nigeria will be allowed to be administered.
– Feb. 09, 2021 @ 19:47 GMT
Tags: 000 doses of Pfizer/BIONtech vaccines Why Nigeria will not receive 100
