COVID-19: FG Destroys Over 1m Doses Of AstraZeneca Vaccines
The federal government has destroyed about 1,066,214 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines donated to the country to combat COVID-19.
The destruction carried out on Wednesday in Abuja, according to the government, followed the expiration of the vaccines given to the country by foreign donors.
The National Primary Health Care Development Agency, NPHCDA handed the vaccines to the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, which in turn, presented them to the Abuja Environmental Protection Agency to destroy at Gosa Dumsite, at Kilometer 2, near Idu Railway Station, in Abuja.
The destruction was supervised by the Executive Director of NPHCDA, Dr Faisal Shuaib and the Director General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, respectively.
Speaking shortly before the destruction was carried out, NPHCDA’s Executive Director, Dr Faisal Shuaib, explained that the action was carried out on behalf of the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19, comprising also the Federal Ministry of Health, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC.
“We had promised you in the last couple of days that we have successfully withdrawn about 1,066,214 of expired Astrazenecal vaccine.
“As you can see, this vaccine has now been deposited by the Abuja Environmental Protection Agency.
“We have come through in our promise to all Nigerians to be transparent in our delivery of vaccines.
“These did not expire before we took the decision to withdraw them,” he said.
According to Dr Faisal Shuaib, “Today is an opportunity for Nigerians to have further faith in our vaccination programme because we have lived up to the expectations of all Nigerians.”
“We had the option if we were to take the advice of some experts to try and use these vaccines even beyond the labelled expiry date. But working together with my sister, the DG of NAFDAC, we took that decision to destroy the vaccines at the point that they got expired,” he added.
According to the NPHCDA boss, the destruction of the expired vaccines was to “further demonstrate the high standards that we operate within Nigeria.”
“The work that we do is work that requires trust. It is a sacred trust that has been bestowed on us by the generality of the whole Nigerians. We hold that trust to be true and we guide that trust very jealously. This is why today we are destroying these vaccines that have expired,” he said.
He spoke further: “I want to assure all Nigerians that the heroes of today’s activities are actually the frontline health workers.
“A few months ago, when these vaccines were offered to us,we knew that we have a short shelve life but we were living in an environment where the supply of COVID-19 vaccines were very scarce.
“They were not available due to vaccine nationalism. We had developed countries that procured these vaccines and hoarded them in their stores.
“At the point that they were about to expire, they were offered for donation. While we appreciate the donations from these countries, we have to acknowledge the fact that they were almost expired vaccines.
“Because we wanted to satisfy and protect Nigerians, we offered to accept these vaccines, work collaboratively with NAFDAC to ensure they also test the vaccines to be in good condition then we roll out. We rolled out under very difficult circumstances.”
He commended frontline health workers for doing excellent jobs, explaining that: “We actually got our frontline workers working nigh night and day.
