Nigerians should expect the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines in Nigeria in January, the federal government has said.
The information was given on Wednesday in Abuja by the Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire.
He spoke shortly after the Federal Executive Council meeting at the Presidential Villa.
He said a technical working group was already working on how to bring in the vaccine.
According to him, Nigeria had signed up with the World Health Organisation and the GAVI Alliance for access to vaccines immediately they are available.
His words: “We signed up for advanced market participation in COVAX. So, if we will be able to get our own, I think it will be in January.”
The minister stated further: “A technical working group is working on the question on vaccine. We have signed up with the World Health Organisation and the GAVI Alliance (formerly the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation) for access to vaccines immediately they are available.
“But you know that these vaccines are new and are in packets and the producers are not giving any indemnity. These countries where these vaccines are manufactured, have of course, given themselves the priority to serve themselves, serve their own citizens first and we hope that the pressure from the World Health Organisation and GAVI will be able to get reserves for other countries that are not manufacturing and they will be able to attend to what will signed up to.
“We signed up for advanced market participation in COVAX. So, if we will be able to get our own, I think it will be in January. But there are two types of vaccines. There are those that have to be in ultra deep freezers – the MRA type of vaccines. That is the freezer that must give you Minus 80 per cent type of degree.
“There is another type that has to be in the deep freezer of Minus 20 degree which is a deep freezer and there is another type that can be in minus two degree refrigerators. This is the regular refrigerator. The one that will be in regulator refrigerators is easy. We have them here.
“The one that will be in Minus 20 refrigerators is also going to be possible because we also have the freezers here but the one that will be in ultra cold freezers, we hardly have ultra cold freezers in this country and to receive and store in those ultra cold freezers will require that you purchase the ultra cold freezers.
“So, we are working on the cost. Which one shall we get first? Obviously the one we can afford. Remember that we have 200 million citizens. We need to have a way to be able to get enough to be able to take care of our citizens. So, that means we must be able to get the vaccines that work well, with good cost of storage and cost of delivery. That is the one we will like to get as soon as they are available.”
