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Nigerian government destroys over 1 million doses of expired AstraZeneca Vaccines
The Nigerian Federal Government has destroyed over 1 million doses of expired COVID-19 AstraZeneca vaccines
The Nigerian Federal Government has destroyed over 1 million doses of expired COVID-19 AstraZeneca vaccines
While speaking with newsmen, the Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Faisal Shuaib, made the announcement, said Nigeria had successfully withdrawn about 1,066,214 doses of expired AstraZeneca vaccines from across the country.
This, however, is coming in a period when other African countries like Malawi, South Sudan, Liberia, Mauritania, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Comoros, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has destroyed their expired COVID-19 vaccines.
Meanwhile, the event has been attributed to a consequence of delays in shipment of vaccine doses, especially of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which meant countries could not roll them out before expiration.
“As you can see, these vaccines have now been deposited by the Abuja Environmental Protection Agency. We have come through in our promise to all Nigerians to be transparent in our delivery of vaccines.
“That these vaccines did not expire before we took the decision to withdraw them today is an opportunity for Nigerians to have further faith in our vaccination programme because we have lived up to the expectation of all Nigerians.
“We had the option if we were to take the advice of some experts to try and use these vaccines even beyond the label expiry date, but working together with our sister agency, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), we took that decision to destroy the vaccines at the point that they got expired.”
According to Tribune, Director-General, NAFDAC, Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, noted that Nigeria was the only country with a unique immunisation programme.
“In terms of what we are witnessing today, it is a continuous unfolding of the fact that the best is for all Nigerians because Nigerians deserve the best in terms of quality of medicines, vaccines,” she said.
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