Federal Government needs over N2.44tn to vaccinate 165 million Nigerians

The Federal Government will need about N2.44tn for the vaccination of 164.8 million Nigerians, who will not have access to free vaccines the country is expecting from the international community.

Currently, Coronavirus vaccines available globally include those discovered by Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Oxford and Novavax.

The Executive Director of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Faisal Shuaib on Tuesday said, 100,000 doses of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine would be received by country at the end of the month.

He also said Nigeria would secure free delivery of 42 million doses of vaccines, which would be a combination of all the available and approved vaccines currently in the market.

According to him, the 42 million doses of the vaccine will only cover 20% of the country’s population, which the National Population Commission recently put at 206 million.

The United States Food and Drug Administration Agency had last month said Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is administered as a two dose series, three weeks apart.

Based on the two dose requirement for each of the 164.8 million Nigerians, it means the country will need $6.43 billion or N2.44tn (using CBN official exchange rate of N379/$1) to procure the vaccine for them.

A professor of virology, Oyewale Tomori, gave the cost of other vaccines.

According to him, Moderna vaccine is between $10 and $50, Johnson & Johnson, $10 and Oxford, $3 to $4 per dose.

He, however advised the Federal Government not to procure vaccines that the country lacked the facility to store.

Tomori said procuring a vaccine that will be difficult to store in Nigeria would be like adding to the problem of the pandemic in the country.

He said, “There are three or four different types of vaccines at the moment, there is the one from Pfizer that must be stored at -70*C, Moderna vaccine must be stored at -20*C and there are others that can be stored at fridge temperature.

Shuaib faulted some virologists quoted to have said it was dangerous to introduce COVID-19 vaccine in Nigeria.

He said there was nothing dangerous about the vaccine which had been approved by the World Health Organisation, WHO.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, has announced the death of his younger brother, Dr. Haroun Hamzat.

Haroun, a medical doctor in one of the public health centres in the Orile Agege Local Council Development Area, died on Tuesday. He was aged 37.

The Deputy Governor also cautioned residents against COVID-19, urging that safety measures should be taken at all times.

“There is the urgent need for us as a people to be conscious of the volatility of COVID-19. We should not only do this for ourselves but for everyone we come in contact with.

“Stay safe, use your masks, sanitize and wash your hands regularly and maintain social distance”.

Also, the Dean of the Faculty of Education, University of Lagos, Prof. Monday Ubangha, has said the two dons, Prof. Oyewusi Ibidapo-Obe and Prof. Duro Ajeyalemi, who died of COVID-19 complications were close friends.

Ibidapo-Obe’s death was announced on Sunday, while Ajeyalemi died on Wednesday.

Ajeyalemi died at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi Araba, at the age of 70.

Ajeyalemi, who retired from the university in November 2020 was also the pioneer registrar of the Joint Universities Preliminary Examination Board and former Dean, Faculty of Education and pioneer Dean, Student Affairs, UNILAG.

He advised Nigerians to take COVID-19 seriously.

The Chairman, Academic Staff Union of Universities, UNILAG, Dr. Dele Ashiru said the entire Nigerian university system would miss Ajeyalemi.

He said, “Prof. Ajeyalemi was an accomplished academic in his own right. His sudden death is a great loss, not only to UNILAG but to the general Nigerian university system. The university community will miss him very dearly”.

Professor of virology, Oyewole Tomori has dismissed the idea that the introduction of COVID-19 vaccines will affect the herd immunity of Nigerians.

Tomori said it would be difficult to determine the percentage of Nigerians with herd immunity of COVID-19.

He said, “Advising Nigerians against taking COVID-19 vaccine is totally wrong, it is creating more problems for our people. Getting a vaccine does not destroy herd immunity, otherwise, why would we be vaccinating our children several times for polio?

“The normal standard of vaccine is that when you are exposed to something before and you get that thing again, it boosts your immunity. It is called Anamnestic reaction, your body reacts and produces more antibodies.

“There is no figure of what the herd immunity is in Nigeria now for COVID-19. It has not been studied here. In other parts of the world where the herd community had been studied in relation to COVID-19, it was not more than 20 to 30 percent and they were testing different groups of people. It is not true that COVID-19 vaccine will destroy herd immunity”.

The two virologists, Rosemary Audu and Sunday Omilabu who cautioned against the introduction of the vaccine to Nigerians , argued that the immunity of the people may be enough to fight the virus.

The Lagos State University Teaching Hospital warned that shunning the vaccination against COVID-19 is hazardous for the country at this trying time.

The institution said that there had been an alarming upsurge in COVID-19 cases in Nigeria, advising that everyone should continue to observe the laid down guidelines to curtail the virus.

The chairman, Medical Advisory Committee of the hospital, Prof. Wasiu Adeyemo, who described those speaking against the vaccine as conspiracy theorists, said they initially denied the presence of COVID-19 in the country.

The Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Prof. Chris Bode, explained that the new cases of COVID-19 in the second wave are easily transmittable and deadlier compared to the first wave.

“This is not to raise unnecessary alarm, but rather, to alert us all to what is happening and call on each other to do again, what we have done very well before. Every life is precious and we implore Nigerians to do whatever is needed to save our people”.