From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Federal Government, on Wednesday, took delivery of 859,600 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine and 175 solar direct drive refrigerators from Japanese government through the COVAX facility.
The government was optimistic that the donation will aid COVID-19 response in Nigeria, adding that Nigeria has successfully vaccinated 17,914,944 eligible persons with the first dose of COVID-19 representing 16 per cent of the eligible population targeted for vaccination in Nigeria.
Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Faisal Shuaib, who received the consignment on behalf the Federal Government appreciated the Japanese government for the support, assuring that the vaccines and the refrigerator would be judiciously deployed to serve the people.
Dr. Faisal said: “The donation of 859,600 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines bolsters the global effort to defeat the coronavirus pandemic and demonstrates the ongoing commitment of the global community to ensuring Nigeria receives the vaccines it needs.
“We are particularly happy about the Solar Direct Drive (SDD) refrigerators because of their advantages in independent and uninterrupted power source for vaccine storage. They would help retain the potency of the vaccine. We have since deployed the SDDs to 24 states of the federation based on vaccine coverage, equity and making sure we reach the last mile.”
“The successes we have achieved so far was as a result of the strong collaboration and partnership from our partners. The team leads of our various partner organizations such as WHO, UNICEF, USAID, USCDC and all other partners not yet mentioned have provided great leadership.”
Dr. Faisal promised that they would continue to work with stakeholders, partners and communities to ensure an inclusive campaign that stems on the transparency and accountability principles of the Federal Government.
“We have optimized our service delivery, communication, accountability, logistics, Electronic Management of Immunization Data (EMID) and supervision to ramp up vaccine uptake in Nigeria.
“Our experience of low uptake of the second dose makes Johnson and Johnson vaccine very helpful for a more rapid vaccination progress in Nigeria. Also, the availability of the AstraZeneca vaccines donated by the Japanese Government helps a long way in making available doses of the vaccines for those who are yet to take their second doses.”
Japanese Ambassador to Nigeria, Matsunaga Kazuyoshi, in his remarks, said the gesture was to support the fight against COVID-19 in Nigeria.
He said they observed that storage of vaccine was a problem in Nigeria, hence the decision to procure and supply the refrigerators to help the proper storage system of the vaccines.
World Health Organization (WHO) Country Representative, Dr. Walter Mulombo, in his remarks, appreciated the effort of the Federal Government as regards responses to COVID-19.