The National Primary Health Care Development Agency, NPHCDA, has disclosed that no fewer than 2.3million Nigerians have so far registered for COVID-19 vaccination, 24 hours after opening the portal.
The NPHCDA Director-General, Dr. Faisal Shuaib, made this known on Wednesday during a virtual meeting monitored in Abuja.
He said: “I can tell you that there is a lot of excitement. Although some people have raised their concerns and we are trying to address them, but the enthusiasm is in less than 24 hours that the portal was launched, we have recorded about 2.3 million Nigerians who have registered to be vaccinated and the number continues to grow.”
Mr Shuaib added that the task placed on Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Federal Ministry of Health and NPHCDA would not be taken for granted.
On delivery of the second batch of the vaccine to Nigeria, Mr Shuaib said work had already commenced to receive the next batch as the 4 million doses received are free.
“The balance of 12 million doses will be arriving in batches between now and the month of May. The COVAX facilities as we are all aware and ground-breaking establishment involving Gavic Alliance for Immunization and WHO is to make sure that there is equitable access to vaccines globally.”
Mr Shuaib also disclosed that COVAX facilities will provide vaccines that will cover 20 per cent of Nigeria’s population for free.
“In terms of what to do additionally to get the rest of the population vaccinated, Shuaibu said that all the paper works have been done to apply what is required to procure up to 41 million doses of additional COVID-19 vaccine.
“Right now, about 22.9 million AstraZeneca Oxford vaccines are in place and about 18 million doses of Johnson and Johnson will be procured.
“The next consignment of vaccine from Africa union is the 41 million which will start coming in from March to April and May,” he explained.
