….Blames lack of storage capacity for ommission
Nigeria did not meet the cut off for it to be listed as one of African countries to be listed for the Pfizer vaccines.
The World Health Organisation-led COVAX global initiative blamed Nigeria’s inability to meet the storage capacity required of -70 degrees Celsius.
Nigerian was expected to receive 100,000 doses through the COVAX initiative, which was set up to ensure rapid and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for all countries, regardless of income level.
But the Director, WHO, African Region, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, at a virtual press conference on Saturday said WHO could not risk the Pfizer vaccines being wasted.
Moeti also revealed that only four African countries made the cut. Thirteen (13) that applied for the vaccune.
According to her, “Around 320,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine have been allocated to four African countries – Cape Verde, Rwanda, South Africa and Tunisia. This vaccine has received WHO Emergency Use Listing but requires countries to be able to store and distribute doses at minus 70 degrees Celsius.
“To access an initial limited volume of Pfizer vaccine, countries were invited to submit proposals. Thirteen African countries submitted proposals and were evaluated by a multi-agency committee based on current mortality rates, new cases and trends, and the capacity to handle the ultra-cold chain needs of the vaccine.
“This announcement allows countries to fine-tune their planning for COVID-19 immunisation campaigns. We urge African nations to ramp up readiness and finalise their national vaccine deployment plans. Regulatory processes, cold chain systems and distribution plans need to be in place to ensure vaccines are safely expedited from ports of entry to delivery. We can’t afford to waste a single dose.”
The news was however not shocking to Dr. Olumide Akintayo, former President, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) who had objected to Nigeria procuring the pfizer vaccine on the ground that it does not have tuw required storage capaciity.
Akintayo had told NewsSpecng that the only vaccine the country can handle right now is the Oxford vaccine.
He said, “Government is trying to budget N400 billion to access vaccines, what type of vaccines are we bringing in. Now, the plan as it is now is to bring Bionex vaccine that requires -80 Celsius, we do not have such facility for God sake to store such vaccine in Nigeria. To store -80 degree Celsius you know what that is and those are the type of people we are working with. Because the likes of Osagie Ehanire will not allow professionals like Pharmacists and drug experts to advice them on this issues. They dont listen and then they will mess it up.
“N400 billion, a country that suffers from gross infrastructural deficiency like Nigeria. The only vaccine out of the ones been marketed now that looks like we can handle in Nigeria is the one been manufactured by the Oxford and these are technical details, this are things that makes you very sad. But you know these fellows just carry on as if they know all and then insult anybody who can offer some sort of technical advice.”
