By John Ikani
As the Federal Government gears up to begin inoculation of the second round of COVID-19 vaccines received as donations, Nigerians have been warned not to mix or receive more than one brand of the vaccines.
The Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Faisal Shuaib issued the warning on Tuesday while briefing newsmen on the progress of COVID-19 vaccination in Nigeria.
He said: “It is pertinent to state that mixing one brand of vaccine with another brand in the first and second dose is not allowed.
“Those who have received AstraZeneca as first dose should receive AstraZeneca as second dose, while those who will receive Moderna as first dose will receive Moderna as second dose when due.”
He also disclosed that the nation will take delivery of an additional AstraZeneca vaccine and those who are due for the second dose of the vaccine will be prioritized.
Speaking on the perceived delay in administration of vaccines, Shuaib explained that the delay in administration was to enable a successful process of tracking and tracing of vaccines from the National level to subnational level and then to the point of administration as witnessed in the first phase of the vaccination rollout.
“The media reports that seem to suggest that we are delaying the rollout of the vaccines due to documentations of the vaccine are not correct.
“On the contrary the reason why we had to extend/ postpone the launch date of the vaccine is because we want to institute once again in conjunction with NAFDAC the track and trace all the way to the health facility where the vaccines would be administered.
“This means that we are locally creating labels for the vaccine barcode that will ensure that this tracking and tracing continues just like we did in the 1st phase.
“Consequently, we want to call on all Nigerians to remain assured that the vaccines that we have are safe and will be deployed next week as earlier communicated,” he added.
