Following insinuations from the United Kingdom government that those not vaccinated with the Pfizer BionTech Vaccine, it has been reported that the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency has stated that the UK does not have issues with the vaccine being administered in Nigeria.
This was reportedly disclosed by the Executive Director of NPHCDA, Faisal Shuaib, during the weekly press briefing on COVID-19 vaccination in Abuja.
According to him, “As you may be aware, the UK government released a new travel advisory which would take effect from Monday October 4, 2021.”
He stated that, “There have been concerns by Nigerians on how this would affect us. We will like to clarify that the guidance provided by the UK government is that they will want to simplify the classification of countries from green, amber and red to just red and green list. Therefore, countries that are currently on the amber list may fall into either of these two categories.”
He added that, “We have had preliminary discussions with officials of the UK government. Without prejudice to the information yet to be released, we have been assured that Nigeria will maintain the status quo. That is to say, Nigeria will not be on the red list.”
Shuaib made it known that, “The UK government has also stated that they have no issues with the vaccines used in Nigeria. The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, also known as COVISHIELD that is used in Nigeria was approved by the UK regulatory body (MHRA), other stringent regulatory authorities and the World Health Organisation. So, the UK government does recognise the vaccines used in Nigeria.”
This is coming after Nigeria resulted into using the Oxford AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, after being denied access to the Pfizer BionTech Vaccine due to poor power supply.
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