As confirmed cases of COVID-19 maintain a steady rise in Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime has said it will vaccinate 109 million Nigerians over two years.

According to the National Primary Health Care Development Agency’s Executive Director, Faisal Shuaib, revealed this at the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 briefing, on Monday, in Abuja.

“We remain in anticipation of about 57 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from the COVAX Facility and the AU. Working with the states, the federal government plans to vaccinate all eligible population from 18 years and above, including pregnant women.

“However, the decision to vaccinate any pregnant woman will be made in consultation with her healthcare provider. There will be considerations of whether she is at high risk of contracting COVID-19 or not.

“She is likely to be at high risk, for example, if she is a frontline health worker, a support staff or a first responder in the different spheres of the security architecture of our country.

“This guidance is based on the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunisation (SAGE). After excluding those that are under 18 years old, we plan to vaccinate approximately 109m Nigerians that will be eligible for COVID-19 vaccination over the course of 2 years,” he said.

Mr. Shuaib added that the federal government had received the commitment of 1.5 million and 100,000 doses of AstraZeneca from MTN and India, respectively.

“These eligible populations have been identified using the World Health Organization (WHO), vaccine allocation framework and prioritisation roadmap, as well as the disease burden data from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

“They are the frontline healthcare workers, support staff, including those that work in high-risk areas such as point of entry workers, rapid response teams, contact tracing teams, COVID-19 vaccination teams, and strategic leadership.

“People aged 50 years and above and people aged 18 and 49, with significant co-morbidities and additional at-risk groups,” he noted.