We Give Vaccines With Six Months Expiration Date Minimum–U.S Ambassador
Tayo Olanipekun
The U.S Government donated 3.2 million Covid-19 vaccines to Nigeria, the most recent of such gesture, with the delivery having more than six-months expiration date.
The latest supply by the U.S on Tuesday put the total number of the country’s donation of the vaccines to Nigeria to 24.7 million doses in its bid to purchase and donate 1.2 billion doses of Coivid-19 vaccines worldwide.
Ambassador Mary Beth Leonard, in a chat with the Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Faisal Shuaib, at the National Strategic Warehouse, emphasised the importance of maintaining its “proper ultra-cold storage, as safe and effective vaccines are our best tool to ending the pandemic.”
Acute power shortages are part of the problems bedeviling Africa’s largest economy, with most organisations depending on fossil fuel which can sometimes be in short supply as alternate power source.
It is also noteworthy that Nigeria recently destroyed over one million expired AztraZeneca shots received from donors on the cusp of expiration.
The U.S, however, said all its donated Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccine doses to Nigeria have had an expiration deadline of at least six months or more upon receipt to ensure adequate time for use.
U.S has, since the outbreak of the pandemic, provided over $130 million of technical and financial support to Nigeria’s COVID-19 response in the areas of vaccination roll out and administration, deployment of personnel, delivery and supply chain logistics, as well as surveillance systems and provision of rapid response teams.
This is as it has also contributed to the training of over 200,000 Nigerian military and civilian personnel on COVID-19 control measures and maintaining preventive health and social services.
Nigeria with a population exceeding 200 million has recorded 227,378 COVID-19 cases and 2,989 deaths since the pandemic started.
Also, with apathy and shortage of vaccine doses, 17,526,580 persons have taken at least one Covid vaccine dose in Nigeria as of January 14, 2022.