Nigerian officials announced on Monday that they will begin a large-scale COVID-19 vaccination campaign later this week, aimed at increasing The current vaccination rate is only 2.7%.
The head of the President’s COVID-19 steering committee, Boss Mustapha, stated that the government “has enough vaccines in preparation to vaccinate about 50% of the target population by the end of January 2022.”
This means that the most populous country in Africa needs to vaccinate more than 1 million doses of vaccine every day to achieve the goal of vaccinating 111 million people to achieve herd immunity.
The program is expected to start on Friday, and Nigerians will be able to find vaccination sites in private medical institutions, universities, colleges, stadiums, parking lots and shopping malls. Reuters report.
In September, the World Bank’s International Development Association approved a $400 million in credit Speed up Nigeria’s Covid vaccination plan, The Guardian pointed out.
“At this rate, by the end of March 2022, the African continent may only reach 40% of the target,” said Marchidiso Morti, the World Health Organization’s Regional Director for Africa.
The Nigerian government is trying to take action to deal with this dilemma as it reaches 213,147 confirmed COVID-19 cases As of Monday, 2,968 people have died.
Faisal Shuaib, executive director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, said Nigeria received approximately 5 million purchases and donations of AstraZeneca injections last month. Shuaib said Nigeria also promised to provide nearly 40 million doses of Johnson & Johnson, 11.99 million doses of Pfizer vaccine and 12.2 million doses of Moderna. He also said that the government is working hard to ensure that injections are stepped up.
