The Executive Director/CEO of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Faisal Shuaib, said on Monday that the country has adequate storage capacity for COVID-19 vaccines, especially for the first 100,000 doses expected from Pfizer in a few days.
He said, “We have developed a comprehensive COVID-19 vaccine deployment and vaccination plan. We have also developed an operational manual to role out the vaccines when they come. We encourage Nigerians to get vaccinated when vaccines become accessible because the benefits of the vaccines far outweighs the potential side effects.
“I want to reiterate that the first set of vaccines expected in the country is the Pfizer BioNTech mRNA vaccine, and the equipment that is required to store them is the ultra cold chain. Equipment for the storage of the vaccines are available at the National Strategic Cold Store of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency in airport road, FCT.
“Those Ultra cold chain equipment are available, and we have over 2,100 litres capacity. Requirement for the 100,000 Pfizer vaccines that will be coming by the end of January or early February is 500 litres. So we have more than enough capacity for 100,000 doses, and in particular reference to those reports that claim that we are going to waste the 100,000 doses because we do not have any ultra cold chain equipment. “

By Moses Emorinken