He said this in Abuja yesterday at the briefing of the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19.

He said there would be delay in the arrival of the second batch of the vaccines which might also affect and impact the remaining phases of the vaccination campaign.

“We’re aware of the global scarcity of COVID-19 vaccines due to high demand, especially in countries where the vaccines are being produced. We, therefore, anticipate a delay in vaccine supply to Nigeria which may also affect and impact the remaining phases of the vaccination campaign.

“However, in response to the anticipated delay, the Federal Government has rationalized the vaccination exercise by preserving 50% of available doses of the vaccine for administration of the second doses. Each State of the Federation, including FCT, are currently administering only 50 percent of their allocated doses of vaccines.

“The remaining 50% will be administered to clients who had earlier received the first dose and this would be scheduled between eight to 12 weeks from the date of their first dose.”

He said the government had signed off to receive up to 29.8 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine through the African Union.

“We’re also expecting deliveries of vaccines through the Covax facility by the end of May or early June 2021. By this time, we’d have completed the process of administering the second doses of the Astrazeneca vaccine to those who got the first dose.”

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Chairman of the PSC, Boss Mustapha, said several variants of concern were emerging from different jurisdictions and were capable of being imported into Nigeria.

He expressed disappointed over what it called vaccine hesitancy among Nigerians, saying so far, only 1,173,869 Nigerians representing 58.3 percent of the eligible persons targeted in the current phase had received the first dose of Astra Zeneca vaccine.