The Nigerian government has destroyed 1,066,242 doses of expired Oxford-Astrazeneca coronavirus vaccines.
The executive director of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA) Faisal Shuaib, disclosed this while addressing journalists before the destruction of the vaccines at the Idu dumpsite in Abuja.
Shuaib said the expired vaccines were withdrawn from states in the country. He said the government took the action not only to safeguard the health of Nigerians but to also engender trust in the COVID-19 vaccination campaign.
He said, “These vaccines did not expire before we decided to withdraw them and today is an opportunity for Nigerians to have further faith in our vaccination programme.
“We had the option if we were to take the advice of some experts to try and use these vaccines even beyond the label expiry date, but working together with the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), we took that decision to destroy these vaccines at the point that they got expired.”
