States With High COVID-19 Cases Will Receive More Vaccine Doses – Dr Faisal Shuaib

Dr. Faisal Shuaib, Executive Director, NPHCDA

The Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Faisal Shuaib yesterday said that states with high COVID-19 cases will receive more doses of the recently received vaccines in the second phase of the vaccination exercise.

He said  available data would be used in sharing the vaccines.

“From what we’ve seen in the cause of this pandemic, it’s been Lagos, the Federal Capital Territory, Kaduna. We’ve seen cases in Rivers but particularly with this third wave, we’ve seen Akwa Ibom bubbling up as a state that has increasing numbers.

“So, in apportioning doses to states, we look at the epidemiology. Those states that have larger numbers are likely to get more doses of the vaccine,” he said.

According to Shuaib, other parameters that would be used for the sharing include states with high positivity rates, states with larger urban areas where people are not protected and have a high possibility of an explosive outbreak.

Also speaking on the development, the Director General National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye assured Nigerians of the authenticity and safety of the COVID-19 vaccines, noting that the traceability technology used in the first vaccination phase was also employed in the serialisation and distribution of the vaccines.

Adeyeye also disclosed that technology would be used to monitor the distribution of the vaccine across the country.

She noted that this is the first time traceability technology would be used to monitor the distribution of a vaccine in any country of the world.

Adeyeye said Nigeria is the only country in the world doing this using traceability technology to track vaccine distribution.

“This is so that we will know that there is no falsified vaccine that comes into the supply chain. So that the safety of the vaccines can be assured.”