The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) said that they have destroyed 1,066,214 doses of the expired AstraZeneca vaccines.
The AstraZeneca vaccines which are part of the 2,594,100 doses of vaccines received on Oct. 11 and Oct. 29, 2021, and expired in November, were destroyed at the Gosa Dumping site, Idu Railway Station in Abuja.
Persecondnews.com had reported that following the expiration of over one million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, the federal government said it will no longer accept vaccines with short-shelf life as it mounts undue pressure on health workers to administer them.
According to the Director-General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, the decision to destroy the vaccine followed several testing processes that were conducted.
She said it has become necessary to destroy the expired AstraZeneca vaccines to protect Nigerians from harm.
On his part, the Executive Secretary of NPHCDA, Dr Faisal Shuaib, said the AstraZeneca vaccines came with a short life span with some as short as two weeks to expiration.
He disclosed that only about 10 million Nigerians have been vaccinated against COVID-19 nationwide so far.
