Faisal Shuaib, the Executive Director of National Primary Health Care Development Agency, has said Nigeria had adequate facility to store the 100,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine which the country is expecting to receive.
This was contained in his speech during the briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-10 in Abuja on Monday.
Shuaib debunked claims that the doses being expected would be wasted as a result of lack of storage facility.
He said, “I want to reiterate that the first set of vaccine expected in the country is the Pfizer Biotech vaccine and the equipment required to store them – the ultra-cold chain equipment – are available at the National Strategic Cold Store of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency.”
According to Shuaib, it was the decision of government, through the PTF and the Ministry of Health not to invest too heavily in ultra-cold chain equipment, hence the decision to go for vaccines that can be stored with the equipment being used to store vaccines for routine polio immunisation.
The NPHCDA boss encouraged every Nigerian to get vaccinated when vaccines become accessible, saying, “The chances of spreading the disease are significantly reduced when community members are vaccinated.”