Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Faisal Shuaib, announced the approval during the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) briefing in Abuja.

Shuaib advised health workers, frontline workers aged 18 years and above and persons aged 50 years and above to visit any designated vaccination site to receive the vaccine free of charge.

“I want to remind you that the eligibility period between the first and second doses of the vaccine has been expanded from 12 weeks to between six to 12 weeks, in line with the scientific recommendation provided by the World Health Organisation’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE on immunization).

“The PSC has approved the second dose of the Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccination in all states of the federation and the FCT.

“We have redeployed Senior Supervisors to the states and have continued to monitor activities with daily evening review meetings to determine the status of the COVID-19 vaccine implementation in all states and the FCT.

“These meetings, allows us to receive reports from the sub-national level on how the campaigns are proceeding, what challenges they face, and how we can pro-actively anticipate and resolve any impending challenges.

“The meetings also provide an avenue to troubleshoot and resolve any operational hurdles as they emerge, before they become problematic,” he explained.

The cases, according to the NPHCDA came out of over a million persons vaccinated with the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines.

Executive Director of NPHCDA, Dr Faisal Shuaib disclosed this at a joint press conference with the World Health Organisation, WHO, on Friday in Abuja.

While the mild reactions included body pains nausea, and swelling, the moderate to severe adverse events presented were fever, vomiting, diarrhea headaches, dizziness, and allergic reactions.

Shuaib explained further that 52 persons suffered moderate to severe adverse events at inoculation, while noting that Kaduna State recorded the highest rate of AEFI with 970 cases, followed by Cross River State with 859 cases, Yobe 541 cases, Kebbi 511 cases while Lagos recorded 448 cases of adverse events.

Dr Shuaib, however, insisted that so far, there has been no case of death or blood clot recorded from the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine vaccination in the country, he maintained that the vaccination rollout in the country has been marked by safety, efficiency, best practice, and speed.

He said: “When incidents, no matter how rare, appear in populations receiving the vaccine, relevant authorities must investigate to determine whether there may be a connection between the medical incident and the vaccine.

“At this stage, different countries are taking different approaches. In Nigeria, since the vaccination program was officially rolled out on 15th of April 2021, a total of 8,439 mild Adverse events following immunization (AEFI) have been reported.

“There has been no death from the administration of the vaccine. We have also not diagnosed any case of blood clots related to the administration of the vaccines.

“Nevertheless, we are working with NAFDAC, NCDC, and other relevant agencies to set up a more active surveillance system built on our experience with polio surveillance.”

The governor was vaccinated alongside his Deputy, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, and some commissioners.

Also, senior government officials and frontline health workers got the vaccine at the Infectious Disease Hospital, Yaba in the presence of the World Health Organisation, and other international health organisations’ officials.

Sanwo-Olu, however noted that the vaccine had side effects after receiving doses of it.

He said the vaccine is safe, stressing that it was brought in to prevent COVID-19 from having an adverse effect on the state.

He said, “I received the Oxford-AstraZeneca #COVID19 vaccine at the Infectious Diseases Hospital(IDH), Yaba.

“The vaccine has been declared safe by the WHO and I want to encourage everyone to take it as we begin vaccination in Lagos.

“To manage the process, we have set up a team of healthcare, distribution and security professionals.

“Vaccination will begin at 88 designated locations for Phase 1 which consists of medical workers, police, military, laboratory, port health, judiciary and rapid response teams.

“Over the next couple of days, we will be vaccinating our frontline health workers at 3 centres to ensure we are protecting our selfless and hardworking frontline heroes.”