With less than four months to the federal government’s target of achieving herd immunity by vaccinating 70per cent of Nigeria’s population, more than half of the eligible population are not yet vaccinated.
Herd immunity occurs when the majority of a population develops immunity against a contagious disease.
The federal government had said that it planned to vaccinate 70 per cent of the population before the end of 2022.
However, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) has said that as at 14th of September 2022, only 47,172,937 eligible persons have received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine representing 42.2 per cent of the eligible population.
Executive director of the NPHCDA, Dr Faisal Shuaib, who spoke during the official hand over of 604,800 Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine by MTN to the federal government, yesterday in Abuja, said only 34,242,083 persons have been fully vaccinated and this represents 30.6 per cent of the eligible person.
Shuaib also said that 3,678,412 of the fully vaccinated persons have received their booster doses.
He said, “Over 47 million eligible persons in Nigeria have so far received the vaccines. Although these people constitute less than half of the overall population of eligible persons in our country, they cannot be wrong to have taken the vaccine.”
Thanking MTN for the donation, Shuaib said the organisation has been a faithful partner in development to the government of Nigeria, and a great friend of Nigerian people.
“On behalf of the government and people of Nigeria, I want to thank MTN for this exemplary support. Without equivocation, 604,800 doses of J&J vaccine mean a potential 604,800 fully vaccinated Nigerians. This is to say that MTN is wishing Nigeria the fast lane to COVID-19 recovery.
