PTF Says Nigerians Will Receive COVID Vaccine Free

The National Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, Sani Aliyu, has disclosed that Nigerians will receive the COVID-19 vaccine for free.

Aliyu disclosed this on Wednesday on the Sunrise Daily programme on Channels TV.

He explained that the GAVI arrangement would ensure that the vaccine accommodates more than 40 million Nigerians.

The GAVI arrangement is a vaccine alliance constituted by a public-private global health partnership, making accessibility to immunisation in poor nations easier.

Aliyu stated, “Yesterday, the president gave the PTF the mandate to proceed with preparations with regard to the vaccine.

“The president has also given us a marching order that the COVID-19 vaccine be available in Nigeria.

“Making use of the GAVI arrangement, we already have assurance that 20 percent of our population will be accommodated by GAVI in the vaccine.

“We don’t need to pay for that and this will cover 40 million Nigerians or so. But we have to pay for the operations and the logistics associated with it.

“We are also planning to pay for an additional 20 to 40 percent. In general, over the next two years, at least 70 percent of the population needs to be vaccinated before we can have enough herd immunity.

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“Just to make it clear to the general public, even if we have the vaccine available tomorrow in Nigeria, the epidemic will not change.

“We still need to apply the protective measures we have been advising right from beginning. Vaccines alone will not change it. If you look at the time it takes the vaccine to take effect, the first dose will take about 12 days to have an anti-body response. The second dose takes a week. In all, it takes a month for one to have adequate immunity.”

In response to the question of whether the vaccine would be given free, he said, "of course".