The Federal Government has said that President Muhammadu Buhari and his Vice, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo were vaccinated on Live TV to demonstrate the safety of the AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccine.
The government stated that eligible Nigerians will also be vaccinated with the same vaccine type administered to the president and his vice.
Speaking on Monday, March 8 at the briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 in Abuja, the Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Faisal Shuaib, reiterated that the first and second Nigerian citizens were administered the vaccines live on tv to dissipate vaccine hesitancy amongst Nigerians.
the Nigerian government commenced the COVID-19 vaccination programme against the dreaded coronavirus infection on Friday, March 5, 2021.
Shuaib encouraged Nigerians who wish to receive the vaccines to register on the website of the NPHCDA, insisting that there is no difference between the vaccine to be given to them from the one administered to president Buhari and his vice Osinbajo.
His statement reads: “What this launch means is that the COVID-19 vaccination programme has commenced in Nigeria. It is important to stress that the President and other strategic leaders received their vaccine from the same 3.924million doses of AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccine delivered to Flag of Nigeria last week.
“There is no difference between the vaccine received by the president and the vaccine that will be administered to other eligible Nigerians. “It is our belief that this public and practical endorsement of the vaccine will build the trust, encourage and motivate the general public in the acceptance and uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine during the vaccination campaign.
“As previously mentioned, in preparation for the vaccination campaign, the Presidential Task Force through the NPHCDA and in collaboration with donors and development partners, developed operational and training manuals to train over 100.000 health workers (which has commenced) at National, State, LGA and Health facility levels for the seamless deployment of the vaccines to the designated population.”
Continuing, the NPHCDA boss said, “The movement of vaccines to the States has commenced today. All things being equal, the delivery of the vaccines will be completed tomorrow. The delivery of the vaccines to the States is predicated on satisfactorily meeting the conditions to keep them safe and potent.
“The state launch of the COVID-19 vaccination for frontline health worker is slated for March 9th at the State Treatment Centers, barring any prevailing local conditions, most Governors have agreed to flag-off on March 10th, while the State-wide rollout of COVID-19 vaccine will commence from the 12th of March.
“It is expected that States will roll out vaccination only when Local Government Areas have met the minimum criteria for the successful conduct of the campaigns. Parameters such as – training, cold chain status, the preposition of data tools, availability of transport/logistics for healthcare workers, adequate security for vaccines, etc should be the yardsticks for going ahead with implementation.”
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) on Monday evening, 8th March 2021, confirmed 371 new cases of Coronavirus disease infection in Nigeria.
The new cases of COVID-19 infection were confirmed via a statement on the official Twitter handle of the national health agency
