COVID-19: No vaccine-induced death recorded in Nigeria so far ― FG

The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), has revealed that no death related to the administration of the COVID-19 vaccines has been recorded in Nigeria.

Executive Director, NPHCDA, Dr Faisal Shuaib, who made this known on Thursday in Abuja at the National Vaccination on COVID-19 bi-weekly briefing, however, emphasised that mild to severe symptoms which were time-limited should be expected within the first three days following vaccination.

Shuaib said out of 1,284 adults enrolled in a study to monitor the safety of COVID-19 vaccines in the country, 52.6 per cent of enrollees reported non-serious adverse effects and only 1 subject or 0.08 per cent reported serious adverse effect in the first week following vaccination.

While noting that none of the enrolled subjects who reported adverse effects required hospitalisation, he said the study led by Prof Akin Osibogun, a Professor of Community Medicine at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, was carried out by NPHCDA in six States; Anambra, Borno, Edo, Katsina, Lagos and Plateau.

“The overall aim of the observational study was to monitor the safety of COVID-19 vaccines in enrolled adult individuals 18 years and above who have received the authorised COVID-19 vaccine in Nigeria for the purpose of safety signal detection.

“The study sought to estimate the incidence of adverse events following immunization with different brands of the COVID-19 vaccine in all enrolled immunised subjects.

“The commonest reported symptoms among vaccinees were tenderness at injection site 20.9 per cent and fever 20.3 per cent. Most of the reported symptoms (55.5 per cent) occurred within the first 3 days of vaccination while 40.2 per cent of the vaccinees with reported symptoms could not recall a time of onset of symptoms.

“Adverse Effects following immunisation were reported more in the older age groups with 61.5 per cent of those older than 60 years reporting symptoms compared to 34.9 per cent of those aged 18-24 years.

“The difference for age was statistically significant (p=0.003). Those with pre-existing morbidities were also observed to have higher rates of reported symptoms (AEFIs) than those without pre-existing morbidities even though the observed difference was not statistically significant (p=0.551),” he explained.

The NPHCDA boss who said Nigeria received 501,600 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines donated by the Government of France, through the COVAX facility on October 4th and 434,400 doses of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine on the 7th of Oct 2021, gave assurances that Nigeria would have adequate vaccines to cover more than 50 per cent of eligible populations by the end of the first quarter of 2022.

Shuaib further added that in line with the NPHCDA commitment to ramp up COVID-19 vaccine uptake, the agency had put in place plans for the establishment of mass vaccination sites across the country, while still maintaining the Federal Government’s free vaccination policy.

“The objective of this strategy is to vaccinate a high volume of individuals through large sites such as Federal institutions (universities, polytechnics), shopping malls, religious centres, sporting events, conference centres, and markets etc. This will require strong collaboration between NPHCDA, State Governments, religious bodies, school authorities and governing bodies of malls and large sporting events. As we expand the vaccination sites, we encourage all eligible Nigerians to avail themselves for vaccination.

“I am also glad to inform you that we have commenced the process of decentralis6ing COVID-19 vaccination in Nigeria, to include private health care providers. This is to expand access and increase utilization of the vaccines,” he noted.

“COVID-19 vaccines will be administered free of charge at both government and private health facilities and the vaccination cards should be given free of charge after vaccination.

“We acknowledge the fact that private health facilities may need to charge for their hospital registration cards which are different from the COVID-19 vaccination cards.

“To ensure a seamless decentralisation, we have begun the training of health workers in the selected private health care facilities and the sensitisation of critical stakeholders to create awareness and sensitize them on the plan and the criteria for involving the private sector in COVID-19 vaccination and secure their buy-in,” he added.

He added that the process of involving the private sector would be transparently done in line with the agency pledge of accountability to Nigerians.

He assured that NPHCDA was putting measures in place to ensure close and effective monitoring and supervision of any participating private health facilities to ensure standards were not compromised.

He, however, said that interested private health facilities would be required to meet certain criteria including having the requisite qualified health care workers, among others.

“To ensure that the vaccines are delivered by private health facilities as expected, we will be engaging in regular supervisory visits to the facilities and will be providing clear rules of engagement to the participating facilities.

“We solicit your support as the watchdogs of society, to ensure that this decentralization does not compromise the current high quality of our COVID-19 vaccination programme. Any erring facilities will be sanctioned, including blacklisting.

Meanwhile, the UNICEF Nigeria Representative, Dr Peter Hawkins, said that the data of vaccinated people presented to show an improvement from what was presented last week

Hawkins said that every Nigerian had a role in the effort to stem the COVID-19 pandemic by being vaccinated, promoting vaccination, and observing the COVID-19 protocol of wearing a face mask, regular handwashing with soap under running water and maintaining physical distancing.

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COVID-19: No vaccine-induced death recorded in Nigeria so far ― FG