Second Phase of Vaccination: How Far?

There have been constant appeals for citizens to get vaccinated since the start of the COVID-19 program, but there have been insufficient vaccines to cover everyone in the country.

As a result, the vaccination process has been divided into stages. In this post, we’ll look at how far Nigeria has progressed in terms of immunization since the second phase began.

Recap of 1st Phase of Vaccination 

At the end of the first phase of vaccination in July, the country had fully vaccinated 0.7% of its total population, while 1.3% of the large population had taken a dose of the various types of vaccine available in the country. As at the end of the first phase of vaccination, Nigeria ranked 26th in Africa and bottom of the ladder in the world when comparing with the most populous countries in each continent in terms of COVID-19 vaccination of its citizens.

And now…

Two months have passed since the commencement of the second phase of vaccination on the 16th of August, 2021. According to the Our World in Data, between August 16 and 21st of October, approximately 2.9 million Nigerians have taken a jab of COVID-19 vaccine, representing 2.6% of the total population. This is more than 2.4 million Nigerians who took a jab between March and August. From the above, it is obvious that a considerable amount of progress has been made in terms of vaccination awareness as the number of people who took the first jab increased by the same percent it did during the 5 months of the first phase in just two months of the second phase.

In terms of full vaccination, a significant improvement has also been recorded as the number of people who have been fully vaccinated rose to 1.3% in just two months of the second phase from the 0.7% recorded during the 5 months of the first phase. 

When looking at the 10% vaccination goal set by the World Health Organisation for September 30, Nigeria falls short with just 1.3% of its population fully vaccinated. In fact, only fifteen African countries; nearly one-third of the continent’s 54 nations, have fully vaccinated 10% of their people against COVID-19. Some of these countries are Seychelles and Mauritius, which have fully vaccinated over 60% of their populations, Morocco 48% and Tunisia, Comoros and Cape Verde over 20%. It is important to point out that the majority of the African countries that have met the goal have relatively small populations and 40% are small island developing states. 

As a result of the foregoing, it can be inferred that Nigeria’s immunization rate has been steadily growing. At the start of the second phase, 4 million doses of Moderna jabs were ready, while 592,880 doses of AstraZeneca were delivered from the UK in August. The overall number of doses provided in the second phase exceeds the 4 million administered in the first phase’s five months. As a result, the minor rise in the number of people vaccinated can be attributed to an increase in the number of doses available.