COVID-19: Nigeria vaccinates over 800,000 people

Almost a month after Nigeria commenced the vaccination of its citizens against COVID-19, over 800,000 people have received the first dose of the vaccine.

As of Thursday evening, 818,865 eligible Nigerians have been vaccinated, an update by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) shows.

The Nigerian government had said it plans to vaccinate 109 million people against the COVID-19 virus over a period of two years.

Nigeria commenced COVID-19 vaccination on March 5 having received 3.94 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines through COVAX, a UN-backed effort that promises access to free vaccines for up to 20 per cent of participating countries’ population. The vaccination started with healthcare workers.

The country also received another 300,000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines from telecom giant, MTN, as part of the latter’s contribution to Africa.

COVID-19 vaccination has since commenced in all states across the country except for Kogi which is yet to receive doses for the vaccines.

Kogi, which has reported only five cases since the onset of the pandemic, was not supplied with doses of the vaccines due to lack of storage facility.

Latest Data

According to the latest update, Lagos, the epicentre of the disease in Nigeria, has vaccinated 152,261 people; making it the highest in the country.

This is followed by Ogun with 51,608, Kaduna-49,759, Kano-39,818, Katsina- 38,476 and Bauchi- 34,795

The states with the lowest number of vaccinated people are Abia- 1,874 and Taraba with 2,760 people vaccinated so far.

As of Wednesday night, Nigeria has recorded 162,891 COVID-19 cases and 2,057 deaths, according to an update by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).