THE World Health Organisation, WHO, has confirmed that Nigeria will receive 16 million doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccines out of the 88 million doses allocated to Africa by COVAX, even as it explained the rationale behind the exemption of Nigeria from the initial COVAX’s Pfizer vaccines allocation to African non-self-financing countries.
The World Health Agency also dismissed media reports that it has disqualified Nigeria from accessing COVID-19 vaccines through the COVAX facility.
The WHO Country Representative in Nigeria, Dr Walter Kazadi Mulomboo, who spoke at a joint press conference with the Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency, NPHCDA, Dr Faisal Shuaib, said WHO was supporting all countries to access vaccines as quickly as possible.
Reacting to the purported disqualification of Nigeria from accessing COVID-19 vaccines through COVAX, the WHO Representative stated: “WHO has not disqualified any country in Africa from accessing COVID-19 vaccines through the COVAX facility, but rather is supporting all countries to access vaccines as quickly as possible.
“Of the 88 million AstraZeneca doses allocated to African countries for the first phase, Nigeria has received by far the largest allocation, with 16 million doses.
“Currently, all countries on the continent are expected to start accessing the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccines by the end of February. The vaccine is under review by WHO for Emergency Use Listing and the outcome is expected soon.”
According to him, the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine is still under review for Emergency Use Listing and the outcome is expected soon probably within a few days.
Throwing light into why Nigeria was exempted from the Pfizer vaccines through COVAX, he said it was largely due to supply.
According to Kazadi Mulomboo, there was an initial limited volume of Pfizer vaccine available through COVAX and the demand for the initial allocation of 1.2 million Pfizer doses was exceptionally high.
“COVAX received interest from 72 countries around the world, of which 51 countries were considered by the review committee as ‘ready’. Nigeria was among these countries and 18 countries in total were finally chosen to receive initial Pfizer doses.