FG Deploys Moderna Vaccines to 29 States

•Second dose of AstraZeneca vaccination begins Wednesday

Onyebuchi Ezigbo

The federal government yesterday said it had deployed Moderna vaccines to 29 states of the federation with storage facilities to preserve the vaccine.

The government said administration of the second dose AstraZeneca vaccine would commence today and close on September 5.

Executive Director of the National Primary HealthCare Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Faisal Shuaib, disclosed this at a media briefing on the progress of phase 2 COVID-19 vaccination in Nigeria held in Abuja. Shuaib said the focus of the agency had been on the distributing the different brands of COVID-19 vaccines – Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca – to the states, as well as concluding the training of state and local government personnel to ensure optimum vaccine utilisation.

He said, “So far, we have deployed Moderna vaccines to 29 States. It is pertinent to state that we could not deploy the vaccines immediately after the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) certification because, unlike the AstraZeneca, the Moderna vaccine did not come with complete barcoding. And this is absolutely needed for us to be able to track and trace the vaccines.”

Speaking on the deployment of vaccines for the second phase of the campaign, Shuaib said the federal government wanted to ensure that any state receiving the vaccine were fully equipped to receive them.

Shuaib said the criteria were that the states’ ultra-cold chain equipment would be fully functional and able to store the vaccines at the required temperature.

He stated, “Also, the states must have back-up storage facilities such as Walk-in cold room, Walk-in freezer or chest freezers with reliable 24-hrs power supply.

“Additionally, we require that the states have completed the training of health care workers who will monitor the equipment and the vaccines,” he said.

In addition, the executive director said that federal government was counting on governors to “continue to provide the needed oversight and resources to ensure that these vaccines are secured and maintained in the required temperatures and that all eligible persons are mobilised to access the vaccines to protect themselves, their families and their communities against COVID-19.”

For the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, which is a single dose, Shuaib said the agency was using Geographical Information System (GIS) to map out the hard-to-reach areas across all states.

He explained that areas such as security-compromised, riverine, nomadic and border settlements are where the vaccines would be deployed for targeted vaccination.

He said the reason for targeting these areas with the Johnson and Johnson was because of geographical constraints that make it difficult to reach the dwellers with the second dose after the first contact.

“Secondly, it removes the additional logistic cost of going to these communities twice. We have developed the necessary protocols to guide the States and ensure compliance with the distribution guideline for the vaccine,” he said.

Shuaib further explained that under the second phase of the vaccination, agency persons of 40 years and above would have the opportunity to check their blood pressure and be assessed for the risk of diabetes.

Similarly Shuaib said children aged zero to 12 months would be screened for malnutrition and vaccinated against childhood diseases such as measles, yellow fever, hepatitis and polio.