Oxford-AstraZeneca Vaccine
Nigeria adds South Africa to its coronavirus ‘red list’ for arriving travellers
Nigeria is adding South Africa to its “red list” of countries for which there are stringent restrictions for arriving passengers, officials said during a briefing on Monday. Nigeria is introducing the restrictions due to the spread of the Delta variant in South Africa, Chikwe Ihekweazu, the head of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, said. The country joins India, Brazil and Turkey on the list. “In Nigeria, we haven’t found the Delta variant yet,” Ihekweazu said during the briefing. Non-Nigerian passport holders and non-residents who visited the countries on the list within 14 days are barred entry from Nigeria, while passport holders and residents must undergo a seven-day quarantine in a government-approved facility at cost to the passenger. They are also required to take Covid-19 tes...
South Sudan to return 72 000 coronavirus vaccines to Covax
South Sudan will return 72 000 doses of donated Covid-19 vaccines after concluding it cannot administer the jabs before they expire, a health ministry official told AFP on Tuesday. The country received 132 000 doses of the Oxford/Astrazeneca vaccine in late March from Covax, the global initiative to ensure lower-income countries receive jabs, but so far has administered less than 8 000 shots. The rollout has been hampered by vaccine hesitancy and major logistical hurdles in the vast and underdeveloped country of 12 million, which, apart from the pandemic, faces an emergency food crisis and widespread armed insecurity. “There’s a plan to deliver back 72 000 doses to Covax,” Angelo Goup Thon, the head of Covid-19 operations at the health ministry, told AFP. He said the decision was made late...
South Sudan to dispose of 60,000 expired coronavirus vaccines
South Sudan is looking to dispose of 60 000 expired doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, as rollout of the drugs is hampered by scepticism among the population, a health ministry official said Monday. The doses in question were donated by African telecommunications company MTN and the African Union late last month. “When it reached here we later discovered that the (remaining) lifespan of this vaccine is just … 14 days,” Richard Lako, Covid-19 incident manager at the health ministry, told AFP. He said that the drugs had since expired and were “already locked somewhere to be dealt with as soon as possible.” Lako said the health ministry and drug authority were working on plans to dispose of the vaccines. “The ministry is now engaging the African Union and the team with regards to that e...
Coronavirus: Nigeria has vaccinated over 1 million people – NPHCDA
The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) has announced that Nigeria had so far vaccinated over a million eligible people out of its target of 70 percent of the nation’s population. The NPHCDA disclosed this on its official Twitter handle, on Thursday. Newsmen report that for the country to achieve herd immunity against COVID-19, it had set an ambitious goal of vaccinating 40 per cent of its over 200 million population before the end of 2021, and 70 per cent by the end of 2022. The country kicked off vaccination on March 5, 2021, commencing with healthcare workers who are mostly at risk to the infections, being the first responders. It noted that the vaccine roll-out would be in four phases, starting with health workers, frontline workers, COVID-19 rapid response team, l...
South Africa to Receive 20 Million Doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine
Image sourced from TimesLIVE Pfizer is set to distribute 20 million doses of its COVID-19 Vaccine to South Africa – starting mid-April. This comes after the pharmaceutical company managed to resolve contractual conditions that weren’t in line with South Africa’s normal procurement policies, revealed Department of Health deputy director-general, Anban Pillay. According to Bloomberg, the Pfizer-BioNTech version will be “used to kick-start the rollout after a decision not to use AstraZeneca Plc’s shot, which was found to offer little protection against mild forms of COVID-19 in a local trial”. AstraZeneca Vaccine Only ‘Minimally Effective’ Against South African COVID-19 Variant, says Researcher The AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine has proven ‘minimally effective’ against the South African variant...
Oyo rolls out coronavirus vaccination programme
The Oyo State Government on Wednesday joined other states across Nigeria to rollout the COVID-19 vaccination exercise. The state flagged off the exercise in Ibadan with the first consignment of 127,740 doses it received from the Federal Government. Gov. Seyi Makinde was inoculated with Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine at exactly 12.20 p.m. During the flag-off, Makinde said that the state had made decision on a sterility test of the vaccine as precautionary measure to ascertain its safety and efficacy. “I have very low tolerance for physical pain, but when duty calls you have to do what you have to do. “I am getting vaccinated today as a show of leadership and to let the people know that they have to be protected. “I ordered for sterility tests because when I asked questions about the origin of t...
