Over 34 million Nigerians have been fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus, according to the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA).
This represents 30.6 per cent of the eligible persons across the country.
Furthermore, while over 47 million eligible Nigerians have received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, representing 42.2 per cent of the eligible population, over 3.6 million other persons, who are fully vaccinated, have received their booster doses.
NPHCDA’s Executive Director, Dr. Faisal Shuaib, announced this while receiving over 600,000 doses of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) COVID-19 vaccines from MTN Nigeria, on behalf of the Federal Government in Abuja.
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Represented by the agency’s Director of Disease Control and Immunisation, Dr. Bassey Okposen, Dr. Shuaib said: “MTN has been a faithful partner in development to the Government of Nigeria and a great friend of Nigerian people. So, on behalf of the government and people of Nigeria, I want to thank MTN for this exemplary support. Without equivocation, 604,800 doses of J&J vaccine means a potential 604,800 fully vaccinated Nigerians. This is to say that MTN is wishing Nigeria the fast lane to COVID-19 recovery.
“As of today, September 14, 2022, (a total of) 47,172,937 eligible persons have received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, representing 42.2 per cent of the eligible population, while 34,242,083 other persons have been fully vaccinated, representing 30.6 per cent of the eligible persons. Also, 3,678,412 of the fully vaccinated persons have received their booster doses.
“Over 47 million eligible persons in Nigeria have so far received the vaccines! Although these people constitute less than half of the overall population of eligible persons in our country, they cannot be wrong to have taken the vaccine. So, what are we waiting for?”
The General Manager of Regional Operation for MTN, Amina Dambata, said: “In conjunction with the Africa Union (AU) and African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT), MTN signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), whereby it would distribute vaccines in Africa, particularly in Nigeria, where we operate and have subscribers.
“We contacted the Ministry of Health in October 2021 to express our intention, in conjunction with the AVATT and AU, to deliver at least 604,000 Johnson & Johnson vaccines, which is about $25 million. We believe the Ministry of Health will deliver them to those who need them.”