Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, has said that Nigerians should expect to receive the COVID19 vaccine by the end of January 2021.
Ehanire disclosed this during the 28th Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting at the Council Chamber of the State House, Abuja presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. He told the council that a technical working group in the Ministry of Health is working on which vaccine will best suit Nigeria.
Speaking to state house correspondents after the meeting, Ehanire said
The world health organization and GAVI would be able to get a reserve for some other countries who themselves are not manufacturing and they would be able to attend to what we signed up to.
We signed up for the advance market participation of the COVACC. We should get by January but there are two types of vaccines.
There are those that have to be in ultra deep freezers, the MRNA type of vaccines. Freezers that must give you -80 °C.
There is another type that can be in a deep freezer of -20 °C and then there is another type that can be in a refrigerator of 2 °C which is the regular refrigerator.
The one that is a regular refrigerator is easy. We have many of such regrigerators all over our country.
-20 °C would also be possible because we have freezers but the Ultra-cold freezers, we hardly have any in our country.
Therefore to receive and store those ultracold vaccines will require for us to go and purchase those ultradeep freezers. So we are working on the costing that it might be. Which one shall we get first?
If we are able to get the vaccine that works well and does not cost us too much, cost of storage and cost of delivery, that is the one we will like”
