After 17 months of the rollout of vaccination against the rampaging COVID-19 pandemic, the Nigerian government has claimed that over 27 million eligible people have been completely vaccinated.
The Executive Director of the National Primary HealthCare Development Agency (NPHCDA), Faisal Shuaib, has shared the information on Monday in Abuja at the flag-off of the SCALES 3.0 strategy.
Shuaib said that the nation’s vaccination coverage has risen from around 17 million to 40 million for the first dose as of August 8.
He asserted that the number of eligible persons who are completely vaccinated currently stands at 27,703,573.
He said, “That’s why, the population of the total eligible population that have been vaccinated in Nigeria is 25 per cent.”
To achieve the mark of providing strong immunity against COVID-19, Nigeria had set an ambitious plan of inoculating 40% of its over 200 million people before the finishing of 2021, and 70% by the end of 2022.
This is based on recommendation from the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Speaking ahead of the vaccine roll out in 2021, Shuaib had claimed that around 40 per cent will be vaccinated in 2021, whereas the remaining 30 per cent will be covered in 2022.
But with only about 27 million persons vaccinated so far, Nigeria may not meet its set target.
Nigeria is not the only country left behind in the COVID-19 vaccination race. According to WHO, only two African countries, Mauritius and Seychelles, have fully vaccinated 70 per cent of their population as of the end of June.
