The National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA), has vaccinated 5,770,899 eligible persons with the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccination while 3,146,885 have taken the second dose (fully vaccinated).
The Director, Planning Research and Statistics, NPHCDA, Abdullahi Garba, disclosed this on Monday in Abuja, at the Ministerial Press Briefing update on COVID-19 Response and Development in the Health Sector.
Mr Garuba added that these figures were achieved as at November 7, 2021, in the 36 states and the FCT.
He noted that there were over eight million doses of vaccines in the country at the moment, but the country was still expecting more doses.
He noted that to achieve herd immunity against the infection, Nigeria had set an ambitious goal of vaccinating 40 per cent of its over 200 million population before the end of 2021, and 70 per cent by the end of 2022.
“To achieve this, the vaccine roll-out was scheduled to be in four phases, starting with health workers, frontline workers, COVID-19 rapid response team, amongst others.
“The second phase has commenced and it’s capturing older adults, aged 50 years and above, and those aged between 18 and 49 years of age,” he explained.
Elsie Ilori, Director of Disease Surveillance Department, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), while giving an update on the Nigeria’s COVID-19 situation, said that while progress had been made in response to the ongoing pandemic with the fact-paced development of diagnostic, therapeutic, and vaccines globally, variants of concern with increased transmissibility pose a threat.
Mrs Ilori said that the pandemic continues to play out differently across countries worldwide.
Credit: premiumtimesng.com
