The Federal Government (FG) announced August 16, 2021, as the new date for the beginning of the second phase of COVID-19 vaccination.
For the second phase, Nigeria will be administering the Moderna vaccine which was donated by the United States.
Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information and Culture, disclosed the new date on Monday while featuring on “Good Morning Nigeria,” a live programme of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA).
Lai Mohammed explained that the postponement of the commencement from August 10 to August 16 was “purely administrative.”
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He said, “We have received 4.08m doses of the Moderna vaccine and we will commence administering the doses on Monday, August 16.
“The exercise was supposed to commence tomorrow (Tuesday), August 10, but we suspended it till Monday, and the reason is purely administrative.
“When vaccines arrive the country, they are taken to National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).
“The agency will analyse them and thereafter give us a green light for the use.”
The minister debunked insinuations that the exercise was postponed indefinitely over concerns raised by some experts on the propriety of using the Moderna vaccine.
He said, as the first batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine which had been fully administered without hitch, the doses of Moderna vaccine donated to the country by the US were “safe and meant to save lives.”
He added, “I want to thank Nigerians for the way they responded to the first batch of AstraZeneca vaccine.
“I can say authoritatively that we succeeded administering the four million doses of the vaccine and we do not have a single expired vaccine. They were all administered to the targeted population.
“I want to encourage Nigerians to come out also to take the Moderna vaccine.”
