President Muhammadu Buhari in a handshake with the SGF Mr. Boss Mustapha during an audience with Founder of Dana Air the State House, Abuja. PHOTO; SUNDAY AGHAEZE. JULY 3 2019.
The World Health Organisation, WHO, has disqualified Nigeria from the first round of supply of the Covid-19 Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines,
According to the WHO Regional Director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, Nigeria was disqualified based on the country’s inability to meet the standard requirement of being able to store the vaccines at the required -70 degrees Celsius.
In a Press Conference on Covid-19, Moeti said that only four African countries were captured in the first supply of 320,000 vaccines.
His words: “In addition, around 320,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine have been allocated to four African countries: Cabo Verde, Rwanda, South Africa, and Tunisia. Deliveries are also expected later on in February.
“To access an initial limited volume of Pfizer vaccine, countries were invited to submit proposals. Thirteen African countries expressed an interest in participating in the initiative, and their proposals were evaluated based on current mortality rates, new cases and trends and capacities to deliver this vaccine, including to store it at minus 70 degrees Celsius.
“I have to say that this was a challenging process as we know all countries want to start vaccinating their populations. The supplies were limited but we are glad that we will have a number of countries start and we look forward to working with the other countries to expand this vaccine delivery.”
This is however, contradictory to the stance of the President Muhammadu Buhari Federal Government, who had lied to Nigerians that it is fully prepared to receive and store up the vaccines to world standards.
The government, through the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, NPHCDA, even went ahead to send broadcast messages to the citizens, which have turn out to be a lie, based on the latest announcement by the WHO.
Peep a copy of the broadcast message as received by Correspondent.
