Nigeria is expected to receive 176,000 doses of the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccines on Wednesday.
Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Faisal Shuaib, confirmed this at a news conference in Abuja on Tuesday.
He said the J&J vaccine, like the AstraZeneca, is safe and efficient against the coronavirus disease, including the deadlier Delta variant. The J&J vaccine is a single-shot vaccine.
It is expected to boost Nigeria’s COVID-19 fight with the Delta variant sparking fears of a third wave of the pandemic.
Dr. Shuaib had recently announced that the second phase of the COVID-19 vaccination programme would commence soon.
The exercise had earlier been scheduled to begin on Tuesday, but it was postponed due to “unforeseen circumstances,” according to a spokesperson in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Willie Bassey.
The need for the rollout of the second batch of the vaccines has, however, become crucial as Nigeria gradually returns to seeing a spike in infections.
As of Monday, 422 new cases of COVID-19 were recorded in the country, with five more deaths.
According to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), the infections were recorded in nine states. Lagos maintained the lead with 190 cases, followed by Rivers (86) and Ogun (85).
Others are Oyo (22), FCT (20), Kwara (7), Edo (5), Abia (4), and Bayelsa (3)
So far, a total of 178,508 cases have been confirmed, 165,983 patients have recovered and 2,192 deaths have been recorded in 36 states, including the Federal Capital Territory.