COVID-19: No Date Yet For Delivery Of Vaccines

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The Federal Government has said it would not be able to put a
date on when the expected COVID-19 vaccines would be delivered to
Nigeria.

Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, disclosed this while
fielding questions from State House Correspondents on Wednesday
after the week’s virtual Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting
presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari in the State House,
Abuja.

The Minister explained that procurement of the vaccines would be
by three sources, none of which is the Nigerian government.

It would be recalled that the Presidential Task Force PTF on
COVID-19 had given various expected delivery dates in the past,
including end of February.

He explained the country is expecting its supplies from COVAX
facilitated by the World Health Organisation (WHO); the Global
Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) and African Vaccine
Acquisition Task Team (AVATT) set up by the African Union.

This is apart from individuals, government and organisations who
are on their own making vaccine donations to the country.

According to him, the supply from the three sources should
satisfy the needs of the country without having to procure.

“Now, you can see that all of these are coming from various
sources but put together, they almost satisfy our needs so that we
don’t really need to go procure, but the question is, when are they
delivering? That is not in our hands. It is the hand of the person
who is bringing it to us.

“We have been told to open an account with Afreximbank under the
African Union, we have done that already successfully because we
are going to pay for that part of the vaccine. The COVAX vaccine is
free, at no cost to us, it is made from donations.

“We want to immunise about 60 to 70% of our population. If COVAX
immunises 20, then we have about 40 to 50 to immunise within the
next two years.

“So, we have to pay for that minus any donations that we get
like the MTN donation. For example, all those ones reduce the
quantities that we have to purchase or any other that in future are
given to us free of charge.

“Now, the COVAX will start delivering to African countries
before the end of February. That’s what they told us. But they
didn’t tell us which country is first or which is second, which is
third.

“So, COVAX begins to deliver before the end of February. And we
hope that before the end of this month, it would be our turn or
latest by beginning of next month.

“As for us here, we are ready to use vaccination once it
arrives, we met all the conditions. They have asked us to sign an
indemnification form, we have done that. Indemnification means that
you do not hold us responsible for anything that happens from using
this vaccine.

“That’s a standard process. We’ve signed that indemnification
and so we are waiting for the vaccines to arrive anytime.

“I don’t think that they will arrive in all African countries at
the same time. They arrive one by one stage by stage or the order
in which they arrive is determined by COVAX, who is the entity
deleting this vaccine.

“Now the largest number of vaccines we are getting is
AstraZeneca in Africa, and this AstraZeneca is made under the
licence. It’s a UK vaccine but is manufactured under licence by the
Serum Institute of India. So, Serum Institute of India is donating
all these vaccines”, he said.

Speaking on why the country had settled for the AstraZeneca
vaccines, the aversion by the South African government
notwithstanding, the Minister explained that besides the fact that
the strain of the COVID-19 found in South Africa does not exist
here, the WHO had given Nigeria a pass on the product.

“South Africa discovered that these vaccine had some weaknesses
against their own variant, the South African virus variant. It’s a
peculiar variant by itself and the South Africans say that it
didn’t seem to be very effective against their own variant.

“Now, we turn to the World Health Organisation and say what do
we do? They say, well, if you don’t have that variant, don’t worry,
use it. In Nigeria, we do not have the South African variant. So,
use it, it will be a effective.

“So therefore, we are using it because it we do not have the
South African virus variant here in our country. And if you start
the vaccination on time and get Nigerians immunised, then they are
immune and even if the variant comes in later on, it probably will
not have any effect.

“So, it is not so effective in South Africa. It doesn’t mean
it’s harmful. What it means is that it may not that effective
because that variant is not here with us,” he said.