FG Suspends Roll Out Of New Covid-19 Vaccines

The Federal government has postponed the rollout of COVID-19 Moderna vaccine doses received from the American government, according to a statement by The Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19 (PSC).

In May, the US pledged to share 80 million vaccines with countries around the world to aid the fight against coronavirus. Nigeria received 4 million doses from this donation at about 2:15 am on Sunday, August 1.

The vaccine rollout was slated to begin on August 10, but the Director for Press for the PSC, Mr Willie Bassey, revealed the committee’s decision to postpone the rollout due to 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,” the statement read in parts.

Data from Nigeria Centre For Disease Control (NCDC) shows that the country has recorded 177,615 coronavirus cases and 2,185 fatalities as of August 7.

Although the country commenced vaccination in March, only 3,938,945 eligible persons across 36 states and FCT have been vaccinated so far. Only 2,534,205 people have received single shots, while 1,404,205 have received double shots of the vaccine.

Patsy Nwogu

Reporting on data-driven featured stories and investigations.

Related post