The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) says 52 Nigerians have experienced moderate to severe reactions after taking the Coronavirus (COVID-19) AstraZeneca vaccine.
The Executive Director of NPHCDA, Dr. Faisal Shuaib disclosed this on Friday at a news conference in Abuja.
He also said that 8,439 Nigerians experienced mild Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFI) after taking the vaccine.
Shuaib stated that the 52 Nigerians that experienced moderate to severe reactions to the vaccine were brought down with fever, vomiting, diarrhea headaches, dizziness and allergic reactions.
“In Nigeria, since the vaccination programme was officially rolled out on April 15, 2021, a total of 8,439 mild AEFI have been reported.
These range from pain, swelling at the site of the inoculation, to body pains and nausea.
“Similarly, 52 cases of moderate to severe incidents of AEFI have been reported. These presented as fever, vomiting, diarrhea headaches, dizziness and allergic reactions.
“Five states have the highest records of the AEFI namely: Kaduna (970) Cross River (859), Yobe (541), Kebbi (511), and Lagos (448),” he disclosed.
According to Shuaib, 1,071,346, representing 53.2% of the eligible persons targeted with the AstraZeneca vaccine had been administered their first dose in this vaccination phase as at April 16.
He said that the data were based on reports received from states through the Electronic Management of Immunization Data (EMID) system only and did not take into account vaccinations that were not yet captured in the system.
“What this number means is that these are the people who have their information already uploaded on our data base while others are awaiting upload, potentially due to network problems and the high traffic of those coming in to take their jabsat the same time.
“While we continue to optimize our registration and immunization data system, we also encourage the state teams to deploy the most suitable internet service for their locations in order to speed up the data entry process, so that we can have the actual number of vaccinated people at any given time,” he said.
Shuaib added that in many states, the inoculation of frontline health workers had been completed and that they had begun offering vaccination to the elderly, particularly those that were 65 years and above.
“We are glad to be able to progress quickly offer immunization to more members of the community.
“Our rollout has been marked by safety, efficiency, best practice, and speed.
The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) and its development partners, have a platform of Senior Supervisors that engage in daily evening review meetings to determine the status of the COVID-19 vaccine implementation in all States & the FCT.”
