By Asmau Ahmad
The Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19 (PSC), says the country will begin inoculation of the second batch of COVID-19 Moderna vaccines from August 10.
The Director Press of the PSC on COVID-19, Mr Willie Bassey, who made this known in a statement on Saturday in Abuja, explained that it is to step up efforts to battle the third wave of infections.
“The PSC has received over four million doses of Moderna vaccine donated by the United States to Nigeria. In view of the above, the inoculation is scheduled from Tuesday, August 10, at the Federal Medical Centre, Jabi, off Airport road, Abuja,” he said.
Health Reporters gathered that the donation was part of President Joe Biden’s promise, to give 500 million vaccines to the world by the end of 2022.
The delivery was the second batch of vaccines to arrive in Nigeria, after four million doses were delivered in March under the COVAX vaccine sharing facility.
COVAX was set up to ensure equitable distribution of vaccines, particularly to low-income countries, and had already delivered more than 80 million doses to 129 territories.
According to the PSC, Nigeria had since exhausted the four million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The Moderna vaccine received on August 1, is mRNA type of vaccine, manufactured and developed by Moderna, NIAID.
Two shots of the vaccine are to be administered through intramuscular injection, 28 days apart.
The Moderna vaccine had been listed for emergency use by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and approved by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), as safe and effective, based on data from large-scale clinical trials.
The Federal Government had earlier announced its plan to vaccinate 109 million people against the COVID-19 virus, over a period of two years.
It said that only eligible population from 18 years and above would be vaccinated.
To achieve this, “the vaccine roll-out will be in four phases, starting with health workers, frontline workers, COVID-19 rapid response team, laboratory network, policemen, petrol station workers and strategic leaders.
