Nigeria Receives 100m COVID-19 Doses, To Vaccinate 111m Citizens From January

Dr. Faisal Shuaib, the Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) has updated Nigerians on the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out. Shuaib made a presentation on Thursday at the National Economic Council (NEC) chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

He confirmed that Nigeria has received over 100 million doses of vaccines from COVAX, the African Union (AU) and countries including France, India, and the United States.

The official said the doses would cover 50 per cent of the targeted eligible population of 111 million.

“Given the availability of vaccines, we have started rolling out a plan to vaccinate 50 percent of Nigerians, 18 years and above by January 31st, 2022,” he noted.

The NPHCDA DG added that there would be a scaling up of over 3,000 health facilities nationwide.

Director-General, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Ifedayo Adetifa said Nigerians must continue to sustain the COVID-19 response.

Adetifa stressed the importance in view of the coming holiday period as well as travels within and outside the country.

He urged the authorities and the people to “maintain testing, encourage adherence to public health and social measures, encourage vaccination and address vaccine hesitancy”. The NCDC chief warned that the Delta variant of COVID-19 is still the dominant strain of concern.