Nigeria will destroy around one million expired Covid-19 vaccines, according to Faisal Shuaib, head of the country’s National Primary Health Care Development Agency.
In addition to Nigeria’s struggles to vaccinate its population, some vaccine doses donated by rich countries had a remaining shelf life of only a few weeks, said Nigeria’s health minister Osagie Ehanire last week.
Nigeria had been accepting vaccines with short shelf lives in hopes to use them quickly and drive up the population’s vaccination drive, but the country will no longer accept these vaccines, said Shuaib, reported by Reuters.
Last month, Reuters reported that around one million Covid-19 vaccines were estimated to have expired without being used last month in Nigeria.
However, World Health Organization vaccine director Kate O’Brien maintained in a briefing on Thursday that the ratio of wasted doses is smaller in countries receiving COVAX donations than in many rich countries.
Of Nigeria’s 200 million residents, fewer than 4% of adults have been fully vaccinated.
add your comment
Terms of publication : Not to offend the writer, people, sacred things, or attack religions or the divine self, and refrain from racist incitement and insults.