…FG clarifies position
Up to one million Covid-19 vaccines are estimated to have expired in Nigeria last month without being used, Reuters has reported.
According to the international news agency, one million doses of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine supplied via COVAX from Europe in Nigeria expired in November.
According to the report, the vaccine loss appears to be one of the largest of its kind over such a short time, even outstripping the total number of vaccines that some other countries in the region have received.
In Nigeria, fewer than 4% of adults have been fully vaccinated, according to the World Health Organisation, (WHO).
The expired doses were made by AstraZeneca and delivered from Europe, the sources with direct knowledge of vaccine delivery and use told Reuters. They were supplied via COVAX, the dose-sharing facility led by the GAVI vaccine alliance and the WHO, which is increasingly reliant on donations.
A spokesperson for the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, (NPHCDA), the body responsible for vaccinations in Nigeria, said the number of vaccines received and used is still being tallied and it would share its findings in the coming days.
The WHO said doses had expired, but declined to give a figure. It said 800,000 additional doses that had been at risk of expiry in October were all used in time.
However, the Federal Government has swiftly reacted to the report, in a statement released yesterday by the Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire.
According to Ehanire, Nigeria has enjoyed donations of vaccines by other countries but had communicated a problem of shelf life that leaves just a few months for vaccines to be used.
The minister, however, said Nigeria had used over 10 million doses of short-life vaccines, adding that expired ones had been destroyed as the country does not utilise vaccines past their expiry date.
