Nigerians will start receiving vaccination against the dreaded coronavirus before the end of March, 2021 according the o the government. 

Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency NPHCDA, Dr. Faisal Shuaib, disclosed this in a letter sent to media executives, inviting them to a sensitisation meeting on the COVID-19 vaccines.  

According to Vanguard, the letter reads, “The management of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency NPHCDA wishes to express profound gratitude for your unflinching support to the ongoing effort to stop COVID-19 transmission in Nigeria.

“The Federal Government of Nigeria, through the National Primary Health Care Development Agency NPHCDA with the support of our development partners, is planning to introduce COVID-19 Vaccine from the 1st quarter of 2021, to protect the citizens and stop further spread of the virus in the country.

 “This is to inform you that as part of the preparatory activities, NPHCDA has scheduled a sensitisation meeting with media gatekeepers as critical stakeholders in this plan.” The meeting, which would be done via Zoom, is slated for this Friday.  Shuaib had at a briefing of the Presidential Taskforce (PTF) on COVID-19 on Tuesday said Nigeria would take delivery of 100,000 doses of the Pfizer and BioNTech approved COVID-19 vaccines by the end of January.  

He said; “In the first phase through the COVAX facility, we expect to receive approximately 100,000 doses of the Pfizer and bioNtech vaccine by the end of January”. 

According to him, Nigeria expects to receive free 42 million doses of vaccines in the second phase through the COVAX facility being administered by 10 Global Vaccines Alliance, GAVI.  

“The second phase will be a combination of all the available approved vaccines currently in the market but this will cover only about 20 percent of Nigeria’s population,” he said.  

Shuaib also disclosed that to completely eradicate the pandemic, about 70 per cent of the total population needs to receive the vaccines, adding that only about 40 per cent will be vaccinated in 2021, while the remaining 30 per cent will be covered in 2022.