The Nigerian Government has taken delivery of additional 1,233,200 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Naija News reports that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine arrived in the country last Saturday through the AVATT platform, coordinated by the African Union Commission.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Faisal Shuaib, said the latest vaccine was part of the 39,800,000 doses procured by the federal government.
He added that samples of the vaccine have been taken by the NAFDAC team for analysis and are currently scanning the codes to ensure proper serialization of the vaccines.
The NPHCDA boss disclosed that as of Monday, a total of 3,600,858 eligible Nigerians had received their 1st dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
He said of this number 2,551,738 persons were vaccinated with AstraZeneca vaccine and 1,049,120 persons were vaccinated with Moderna vaccine.
Recall that Shuaib had said that the federal government is considering sanctioning eligible Nigerians who refused to be vaccinated against Covid-19.
He said the decision will soon be taken following the rising cases of COVID-19 in the country.
The NPHDC boss added that the government may punish eligible Nigerians who refused to be vaccinated but put other people that have been vaccinated in danger.
Shuaib added that the Presidential Steering Committee and the Federal Ministry of Health are exploring ways of making vaccines more available to all Nigerians.
He had said: “The Presidential Steering Committee and the Federal Ministry of Health is exploring ways of making vaccines more available to all Nigerians including federal civil servants and corporate entities.
“Once these vaccines are made equitably available to all Nigerians, then we would need to have a frank discussion about justice, fairness and liberty that exist around vaccine hesitancy.
“So, you have a right to refuse vaccines, but you do not have the right to endanger the health of others.”
This article was originally published on Naija News