9th August, 2021
By Abujah Racheal
The Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19 has postponed the second batch inoculation of Nigerians.
The exercise was scheduled to commence on Tuesday, 10 August at the Federal Medical Centre, Jabi, Abuja.
This ought to have followed the receipt of four million Moderna vaccine doses donated by the American government.
However, the Director Press for the PSC, Mr. Willie Bassey, said the exercise has been postponed due to some unforeseen circumstances.
“This is to announce the postponement of the national flag-off of phase 11 vaccination programme earlier scheduled for Tuesday this week due to unforeseen circumstances.
“A new date will be communicated,” he said.
Although the country commenced inoculation of its citizens against COVID-19 in early March, only 3,938,945 eligible persons across 36 states and FCT have so far been vaccinated.
Out of the figure, 2,534,205 people have been vaccinated for the first dose and 1,404,205 have received their second dose of the vaccine.
The Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine with which Nigeria commenced vaccination, is given in double doses.
A person is required to come back for a second shot, some weeks after taking the first jab.
However, following the exhaustion of approximately four million doses of vaccines delivered through the COVAX facility, the government announced the close of vaccination of the first batch.
COVAX is a United Nations-backed effort that promises access to vaccines for up to 20 per cent of participating countries’ populations.
To achieve herd immunity against the virus, the Nigerian government had set an ambitious goal of vaccinating 40 per cent of its over 200 million population before the end of 2021, and 70 per cent by the end of 2022.