▪︎76 percent effective at preventing COVID-19 infections
▪︎No plans to stop administering vaccines
National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) said Nigeria
would continue the process of administering the roughly 4 million doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.
The country had already begun with frontline health workers and vulnerable individuals.
The Agency in a statement by Head, Public Relations Unit, Mohammad Ohitoto said there had been no change to current plans or supply.
He said a huge number of countries around the world were administering the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, including much of Europe, and United Kingdom, which had administered the most doses of AstraZeneca globally.
According to him: “The World Health Organization, British and European health regulators all continue to advocate the use of AstraZeneca.”
Ohitoto said the AstraZeneca’s strong effectiveness against COVID-19 had been demonstrated in clinical and human trials.
Read him: “It has been shown to be 76% effective at preventing COVID-19 and 100% effective at preventing severe disease and hospitalization.”
He added that Nigeria’s health authorities followed closely recent pronouncements from Europe’s regulator, the EMA.
According to him, the head of the EMA stated that there was no evidence to support restricting the use of the vaccine in any population from scientific knowledge.
Ohitoto said NPHCDA’s priority was the health and safety of the Nigerian people, and “our decisions and advice are guided by best practice(s) and scientific evidence.
“We are confident in AstraZeneca’s ability to save lives.”
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