The National Primary Health Care Development Agency says a total of 1,794,552 Nigerians have so far been inoculated with the first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

The NPHCDA disclosed this on its official Twitter handle late Saturday.

It stated that Lagos, the FCT and Kano have so far vaccinated the highest number of people – 279,372, 118,895 and 92,583 respectively.

The immunisation agency said that three states reached 100 per cent of their target population.

They are Kwara with 104 per cent; Ekiti with 100 per cent and Cross River with 100 per cent.

According to the agency, this brings the proportion of Nigerians vaccinated to 89.2 per cent.

It said that the second dose of Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines had begun.
NPHCDA urged Nigerians, who had received their first dose of the vaccine, to ensure they check their vaccination cards to know when they were due for their second jab.

It stated that this would ensure that every Nigerian who receives a vaccine from the present supply, receives their second dose before the recommended time span between doses passes, “which is between six and 12 weeks’’.

The agency added that more than two million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine have been reserved for the second dose in the first phase of vaccination.

According to it, administering these two doses of the vaccine within the recommended time frame is very important to ensure full inoculation benefits.

“This means that with the current supply, we will fully inoculate roughly two million Nigerians.

“We are removing an element of risk that is becoming too high,’’ the agency twitted.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Nigeria has received about four million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine out of the 16 million doses expecting from COVAX.

COVAX is the vaccine-sharing initiative that provides free and discounted doses for lower-income countries.

NPHCDA the agency said that Nigeria was expecting about 40 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine from the African Union (AU) in a very short while from now.

It, however, declined to give specific dates.

The country has, so far, received about 4.1 million doses of the vaccine.

The Nigerian government had said it plans to vaccinate 109 million people against the COVID-19 virus over a period of two years. (NAN)