The National Primary Healthcare Development Agency said Nigeria is not among the red listed countries that need to do mandatory quarantine for 14 days in a supervised UK facility.
The Executive Director of NPHCDA Dr Faisal Shuaib stated this while briefing Journalist in Abuja.
He added that the development is similar to the requirement to have travellers from the UK, isolate for seven days upon arrival in Nigeria.
He said the Presidential Steering Committee is in the process of reviewing the requirements.
“We have been in touch with the UK Government. Just like they stated clearly in their communication, the current listing of Countries with approved vaccination certification has just started in the UK. They are reviewing the Country’s programs in phases. If you go through the list of 50 closely, no African country made the list.”
While speaking on the vaccination process, he said as at the 4th of October 2021, Nigeria had vaccinated 4,963,985 eligible persons across the country with first dose of COVID-19 vaccines.
“This figure represents 4.4% of the targeted 111,776,503 eligible population. About 2,166,186 people have received their second doses of the vaccines. This means that approximately 1.9% of eligible population is now fully vaccinated against COVID-19. It is imperative to reiterate the fact that only those who have taken their second dose are fully protected against the deadly COVID-19. “
“We have intensified campaigns for the uptake of second dose using multiple media strategies, stakeholders, and community engagement, and they have yielded appreciable results. We will continue to engage with citizens to promote a more rapid uptake of the vaccines much as we will continue to count on your professional support to see that people are adequately protected against COVID-19.”
He further added that the agency received 501,600 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines from the COVAX facility as donation from the Government of France.
While also noting that the agency will be receiving 3,577,860 doses of Pfizer vaccines within the next two weeks.
UNICEF Representative Dr Dorothy Ocholi noted that over 10.5 million doses of vaccine have be received so far, and another 15 million are currently on the pipeline waiting to be received for the fourth quarter likely through COVAX Facility or African center Facility,
“An average of 100,000 thousands persons are vaccinated on a daily basis, which is commendable combined with the availability and supply chain to be able to vaccinate all eligible persons by the fourth quarter.”
“However the challenges still remains that we still need to increase the number of people vaccinated daily from 100,000 to 300,000 person per day to be able to achieve the target set up”.
