The National Coordinator of the the Presidential Taskforce on Covid19, Dr Sani Aliyu says at least 40 million Nigerians will receive the Covid19 vaccine free of charge when the vaccination kicks off.
He made this known during a zoom interview with Channels Television morning program, ‘Sunrise Daily.’
He also expressed fears that many Nigerians will not be willing to be administered with the vaccine.
According to him, “Yesterday, the President gave the PTF the mandate to proceed with preparations with regard to the vaccine.
“The President has also given us a marching order that the covid19 vaccine be made available in Nigeria.
“The #COVID19 vaccine will be available in Nigeria making use of the GAVI arrangement.
“We already have the assurance that we will have 20% of our population accommodated by GAVI, which is about 40 million Nigerians..
“They won’t need to pay for that (the vaccine).”
He added that Nigeria will only pay for the logistics. Nigeria will comply with the President’s orders to use existing health infrastructure.
However, that infrastructure will be upgraded to accommodated the exigencies of storage, running water, cold chain and other logistics.
With the fears that the programme will be greeted with public apathy, Dr Sani Aliyu said that efforts are being made to sensitive the public.
‘We have continued to work with the Federal Ministry of Health and Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA).
“The NPHCDA has a lot of experience in delivering vaccines across the country.
“They were involved with the polio vaccination and even at the moment they are responsible for the delivery of the growth in child vaccination across the country, so that have a lot of experience.
The PTF Coordinator added that a lot of work is going on behind the scene.
“The NPHCDA has a committee, the Minister has set up an advisory committee and the PTF is now coming in to make sure we coordinate effectively.
“The biggest challenge we will have with the vaccine is not going to be logistics, the biggest challenge will be the public acceptance of the safety of the vaccines and allowing themselves to be vaccinated.
“The challenge will be very similar to the one we had with polio Aliyu added.
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