The federal government has asked Nigerians who have taken their first doses of the COVID-19 vaccines to proceed to their centres for the second doses.
The Executive Director, National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, NPHDA, Dr Faisal Shuaib who made the call at a press briefing said the agency has now provided the first COVID-19 vaccine doses to a total number of 1,929,237 Nigerians, representing 96% of the targeted population.
He explained that the number of those who have already received the second doses have reached 4,683 at the moment, calling on those who took the first dose to take their second doses
‘‘We advise Nigerians who have received their first dose to check their vaccination cards for the date of their second dose and ensure that they receive the second dose to gain full protection against COVID-19,’’ he said.
While explaining that the next consignment of vaccine is still tentative, Dr. Shuaib confirmed that Pfizer and BioNTech pledged to provide low-and-middle-income countries 1 billion doses of the vaccine by the end of 2021 and another 1 billion doses in 2022.
The NPHDA boss said the International Monetary Fund was already working towards a $50 billion fund to ensure more vaccine rollout while calling for at least 40% of the global population to be vaccinated by the end of 2021 and at least 60% by June 2022.
