The Nigerian government has strengthen its lobbying to foreign partners to inoculate more citizens in the days ahead with the COVID-19 vaccines due to the effects of the third wave of COVID-19 in a number of countries around the world.
Speaking to this, the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire on Thursday in Abuja during the weekly briefing organised by the Presidential Media Team, said Nigeria is ready to accept any brand of Covid vaccines from benevolent countries, after the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control NAFDAC must have verified its efficacy.
While adding that , already the Nigerian government is exploring available windows with the United Nations UN, the World Trade Organization WTO, the World Bank among others, to see how it can get more supplies to boost vaccination, especially its 70percent vaccination target by 2022.
According to the Minister, Nigeria has not gotten out of the woods yet, as only 2percent (2,000,000) citizens have so far been vaccinated.
He disclosed that about 29million Johnson and Johnson vaccines are being expected in the country between June and July this year, noting that India which supplied the first dose of Astra- Zeneca vaccine has reneged on further supplies owing to its dire constraints.
Ehanire also noted that over 10,000 persons who received the first dose of vaccines complained of mild reactions like head ache, feverish conditions, some degrees of body pains among others.
According to him, such mild incidences were not enough to write-off the AstraZeneca vaccine as ineffective.
