National Primary Health Care Development Agency Chief Executive Officer, Dr Faisal Shuaibu has implored the media to pay attention to statistical details for Covid-19 roll out in order not to mislead the public.
This was contained in a statement the NPHCDA boss signed and released on Wednesday, May 26.
He was responding to media reports that 96% of the total eligible population of Nigeria have been vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine so far.
The reports had claimed that the figure emanated from a press conference organised by NPHCDA on Tuesday, 25th of May.
But in the statement on Wednesday, Shuaibu faulted the reports, saying that the statistics were not correct.
According to him, while it was true that “only 96% of Eligible Nigerians in the First Phase of COVID-19 Vaccination Exercise have so far been vaccinated with the first dose,” it was not true that they were all vaccinated with AstraZeneca vaccine.
He said, “Nigerians are aware that the Federal Government of Nigeria has, till today, taken delivery of only a total of Four Million, Twenty Four Thousand (4,024,000) doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.
“This is made up of 3,924,000 doses of Astrazeneca vaccine from the COVAX facility arrangement and 100,000 doses of the same vaccine donated by the Government of India.
“This vaccine is sufficient to cover approximately 2 Million Nigerians targeted in this phase of vaccination with 2 complete shots.
“Consequently, 1,929, 237 representing 96% of the eligible population of Nigerians in the first phase of this vaccination exercise have, as at 24th May, 2021 been vaccinated with the first dose, please.
“While we commend the media for the good job of consistently publicizing the activities of government, particularly, the COVID-19 vaccination rollout nationwide, since March this year, we, however, appeal that greater attention be paid to statistical details in future so that members of the public can remain guided by correct and truthful information, all the time.”