The Federal Government has tasked all states to administer only half of the Covid-19 doses given to them.
According to media reports, the executive director of the National Health Care Development Agency, Dr Faisal Shuaibu, directed the state to halt vaccination when they reach half of the doses delivered to them.
This was done in order to forestall the unavailability of the AstraZeneca vaccines that may occur if there is a delay in the next batch of the vaccines to come into the country.
It has been reported that there is shortage of the AstraZeneca vaccine in the international market due to the increase in demand by the European Union and a new policy by the Indian company that manufactures the vaccine.
Last week, India noted that it would consider domestic vaccination as key for the over 1.2 billion citizens , which affected the availability for some developing countries, Nigeria inclusive.
The Minister of State for Health, Dr Olorunnimbe Mamora confirmed that it was wise to stop vaccination at half does to enable those who have had their first dose the opportunity of having the second dose.
The Minister said that the country is not hopeless as they are already looking to the African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team for help to increase the initial allocation in the circumstances with what is happening with production and supply from india.
The Sputnik Vaccine from Russia is also being considered pending an approval from NAFDAC.
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