The Federal Government on Monday announced August 16 as the new date to begin administering the second phase of COVID-19 Moderna vaccine doses donated by the United States.
Recall that the government had on Sunday announced that the second phase of COVID-19 vaccination will begin on Tuesday, August 10, 2021.
But on Monday, the government postponed the administration.
Following this, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on “Good Morning Nigeria’’, a live programme of the Nigerian Television Authority said the postponement of the vaccination exercise from August 10 to August 16 was “purely administrative’’.
“We have received 4,800,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine and we will commence administering the doses on Monday August 16.
“The exercise was supposed to commence tomorrow Aug. 10, but we suspended it till Monday, and the reason is purely administrative.
“You see, when vaccines arrive the country, they are taken to National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC)
“The agency which will analyse them and thereafter give us a green light for their use,’’ he said.
The minister, however, debunked reports in certain publications that the exercise was postponed indefinitely over concerns raised by some experts on the propriety of using Moderna vaccines.