The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) Says 17,702,018 eligible Nigerians are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.
This represents 15.8% of the eligible population.
The Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of NPHCDA, Dr. Faisal Shuaib revealed this Tuesday during the handover of 4.4 million doses of the Johnson and Johnson (J&J) Covid-19 vaccine donated by the Spanish government.
"As of today, the 24th of May 2022, 29,651,708 eligible persons have received the 1st dose of the COVID-19 vaccines, and this represents 23.4% of our eligible population.
“14,179,966 persons have received the 2nd dose and 17,702,018 are fully vaccinated and represent 15.8% of our eligible population.
“1,178,604 persons have received the booster dose.
“These figures show that we are a far cry from our target of 70% of our eligible population. However, these donations will help towards achieving our target," he said.
Dr. Shuaib said he believes continuous vaccination will reduce the severity of Covid-19 over time.
But he was also mindful of the likely emergence of a more virulent and highly transmissible variant of the coronavirus if some Nigerians continue to put off being vaccinated.
He expressed sympathy to those around the world who had lost loved ones to Covid-19.
"New estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO) show that the full death toll associated directly or indirectly with the COVID-19 pandemic which is described as excess mortality, between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2021 globally was approximately 15 million (range 13.3 million to 16.6 million).
“This means that we lost about 15 million persons globally within two years as a result of the pandemic. This is heart-wrenching," he pointed out.
