The federal government has disclosed plans to commence the administration of booster dose of Covid 19 vaccine to counter the spread of the new Omicron variant in Nigeria. Executive Director of NPHCDA, Dr Faisal Shuaib who gave the indication at the flag-off of COVID-19 Mass Vaccination of Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced in Abuja said the exercise will kickstart on Friday 10 December,2021. He said, the development is in view of the recent detection of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in the country which necessitated the need to reviewed the nation’s vaccination programme and the resolved to introduce the booster dose. Shuaib who spoke on reasons that informed the introduction of the Mass Vaccination Campaign, said it is to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 Vaccines by everyone. In her remarks, the Federal Commissioner for National Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons Sulaiman Ibrahim said statistics from United Nations High Commission for Refugees, indicates that over 3 million internally displaced persons reside in various Camps across the country,hence the importance of the vaccination exercise. Statistics from the NPHCDA suggests that as at December 9th 2021, over 7million Nigerians have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine with 3,846,762 others fully vaccinated.
