Akinola Ajibola
More people have continued to receive the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine across all states of the country and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), except in Kogi State where nobody has taken the jab.
A total of 513,626 eligible people have taken their first dose of the vaccine as of March 28, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) said.
The figure indicated in the latest update on the vaccination exercise shows that Nigeria has attained 25.5 per cent proportion of those vaccinated.
A breakdown of the figure reveals that Lagos has the highest number of eligible people who have taken the vaccine jabs with a total of 110,042.
The south-west state, which is described as the epicentre of the pandemic in Nigeria, is the only state to have surpassed the 100,000 mark.
It is trailed by Ogun, Kaduna, and Bauchi States where 47,507; 38,063; and 32,482 eligible people have been vaccinated, respectively.
Other states are Katsina – 28,918; Kwara – 26,473; Jigawa – 23,089; Kano – 18,951; FCT – 18,080; Ondo – 18,368; Osun – 17,202; Yobe – 14,748; Adamawa – 14,094; Edo – 12,495; and Nasarawa – 11,509.
According to the NPHCDA, the figures were compiled from the system dashboard of the Electronic Management of Immunisation Data (EMID).
The first shipment of 3,924,000 doses of the vaccines arrived at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja on March 2 via an Emirates airplane from India.
Three days later, Nigeria commenced the exercise with the vaccination of four frontline healthcare workers in Abuja.
President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, state governors, as well as members of the Federal Executive Council, are among those who have received their first dose of the vaccine.
Speaking at the briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 held on Monday last week, the PTF Chairman, Mr Boss Mustapha, hinted that the government took delivery of 300,000 additional doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines.