TheCable

The National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA) says more than 34 million Nigerians have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Faisal Shuaib, executive director of the NPHCDA, said this on Wednesday while receiving 604,800 doses of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) COVID-19 vaccines donated by MTN Nigeria.

Shuaib, who was represented by Bassey Okposen, director of disease control and immunisation at the agency, said 47,172,937 persons, representing 42.2 percent of the eligible population, have received one dose of the vaccine while 34,242,083 persons representing 30.6 percent of the eligible population, have received two doses and are fully vaccinated.

He added that 3,678,412 of the fully vaccinated persons have received a booster shot.

“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 the country, they cannot be wrong to have taken the vaccine,” he said.

The executive director called on all eligible Nigerians who are yet to be vaccinated to do so in order to prevent themselves from severe illness due to COVID-19.

Speaking at the handover ceremony, Hajiya Amina Dambatta, MTN general manager, regional operations, said the donation was in recognition of the need to support the federal government’s efforts in getting all eligible persons vaccinated against COVID-19.

She said the target of vaccinating 70 percent of eligible persons will require the support of all stakeholders especially in area of procurement of vaccines against the virus.

The federal government began vaccinating Nigerians on March 5, 2021 after receiving 3.9 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Data from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) shows that Nigeria has so far recorded 264,617 cases of COVID-19 with 3,155 deaths.