FG has made 15% deposit for J&J vaccines – NPHCDA

The Federal Government has made a 15 per cent deposit for the procurement of the 29 million doses of the Johnson and Johnson (J&J) COVID-19 vaccines which costs $7, 50 cents per dose.

Chief Executive Officer for the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Faisal Shuaib, disclosed this on Tuesday at a briefing in Abuja.

According to him, the Ministry of Finance opted for the purchase of the J&J vaccines to cut down on multiple trips and save costs.

Speaking further, the NPHCD boss said Nigeria is expected to receive 176,000 doses of the J&J vaccine which is a single-shot vaccine.

He also confirmed Monday (August 16) as the new official rollout date for the second batch of the inoculation exercise.

The vaccines are expected to boost Nigeria’s COVID-19 fight with the deadlier Delta variant sparking fears of a third wave of the pandemic.

The second phase of the vaccination exercise had earlier been scheduled to begin on Tuesday, but it was postponed due to “unforeseen circumstances,” according to a spokesperson in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Willie Bassey.

With Nigeria gradually seeing a fresh spike in infections, the need for the rollout of the second batch of vaccines has become crucial.

As of Monday, 422 new cases of COVID-19 were recorded in the country, with five more deaths.

According to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), the infections were recorded in nine states. Lagos maintained the lead with 190 cases, followed by Rivers (86) and Ogun (85).

Others are Oyo (22), FCT (20), Kwara (7), Edo (5), Abia (4), and Bayelsa (3)

So far, a total of 178,508 cases have been confirmed, 165,983 patients have recovered and 2,192 deaths have been recorded in 36 states, including the Federal Capital Territory.

2.53 million Nigerians have, however, taken the first dose of the vaccine, while 1.404 million have been fully vaccinated.