Dr. Faisal Shuaib, the Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), has announced that his organization has begun implementing decentralization of vaccine consumption by integrating the private sector in vaccine administration.
Private hospitals that meet the requirements would be given COVID-19 vaccinations to administer to eligible Nigerians under this arrangement.
Shuaib made the announcement at a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday.
According to him, the decentralization of the COVID-19 immunization program is in response to indications that Nigeria will get a large supply of COVID-19 vaccines from the COVAX facility in the coming months, necessitating an efficient and faster approach to use them.
The immunizations, according to the NPHCDA’s director, will be administered at private health facilities with the help of government health professionals.
“In the next months, Nigeria will receive more doses of COVID-19 vaccinations through the COVAX facility,” Shuaib stated.
“We predict that the vaccinations would be in enormous quantities, necessitating more efficient and speedier methods of administration, including expanding vaccine access.
“As a result, we’ve begun to execute vaccine decentralisation by enlisting the help of the private sector in vaccination administration.
“At the moment, COVID-19 vaccines are only available at government-run clinics. As we decentralize, private health institutions that meet the criteria will be given COVID-19 vaccinations after their immunization service providers have been properly trained. Vaccinations will continue in private health facilities with the assistance of government health professionals.
“Clients will then be able to get COVID-19 vaccines at both government and private health care facilities throughout the country.
“This will be carried out at several levels, including state and local governments. We are taking every precaution to ensure that the decentralization policy is not tainted when it is implemented. Private health-care facilities will be carefully chosen based on transparent qualifying criteria, and oversight will be increased to ensure discipline and adherence to safety regulations.
“As I have stated, the goal is to increase access to COVID-19 vaccinations while also ensuring efficient and safe vaccine administration.”
Dr. Shuaib, on the other hand, reported that his agency received 501,600 doses of AstraZeneca vaccinations from the COVAX facility yesterday (Monday) evening as a gift from the French government, as well as assurance that it will receive 3,577,860 doses of Pfizer vaccines within the next two weeks.
He also stated that Nigeria is not on the UK government’s red list of countries that must be quarantined for 14 days in a supervised UK facility, as stated in a statement made two days ago.
According to him, the UK government’s stance is in accordance with a press statement issued last week that Nigerians will continue to isolate once they get in the UK. This is identical to our demand that visitors from the United Kingdom isolate for seven days after arriving in Nigeria.
“The vaccines delivered in Nigeria have been approved by the UK Government, according to my conversations with UK government officials.
“Through the Foreign Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO), they are also participating with the vaccination program in Nigeria, and they are optimistic that Nigeria’s COVID-19 vaccination program certification will be accepted by the time it is assessed.
“Because there are so many countries in the world, we, like so many others, are in line for this assessment. We are more than likely to get accepted in the coming weeks whenever it comes to our time. The assessment process would take place in phases, as the UK government has said clearly.”
