The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has approved the use of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in Nigeria.
In a press conference, Thursday morning, Professor Mojisola Adeyeye,Director-General of NAFDAC said the agency received the dossier of the vaccine from Serum Institute of India on February 10, 2021, and the NAFDAC Vaccine safety committee went to work immediately to evaluate its safety and efficacy for Nigerians.
Prof. Adeyeye said the vaccine, which is a multi-dose, can be stored at 2 to 8-degree centigrade and can be administered to adults above 18 years of age.
According to the DG, there are three additional vaccines undergoing evaluation, but the evaluation on Astrazeneca shows that the vaccine is effective against the UK variant of the virus which has been reported in Nigeria.
She further disclosed that the South African variant has not been reported in Nigeria and that the agency has over 30 herbal medicines undergoing review for listing.
The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, also known as ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, or AZD1222, is a viral vector vaccine. Scientists used an adenovirus, originally derived from chimpanzees, and modified it with the aim of training the immune system to mount a strong response against SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19).
Nigeria as at Wednesday has a total reported case of 149,369 and 1,787 people confirmed dead from the virus.
The country is expected to get the first batch of the COVID-19 vaccines by the end of February.
