The federal government has announced August 16 as the new date to begin administering the second batch of COVID-19 Moderna vaccines doses donated by the U.S.

Information minister Lai Mohammed announced this on Monday on ‘Good Morning Nigeria’, a live programme of the Nigerian Television Authority.

The minister said the postponement of the vaccination exercise from August 10 to 16 was “purely administrative.’’

“We have received 4,80,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine, and we will commence administering the doses on Monday, August 16. The exercise was supposed to commence tomorrow, August 10, but we suspended it till Monday, and the reason is purely administrative,” Mr Mohammed explained. “You see, when vaccines arrive the country, they are taken to National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).”

The minister said as the first batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine was fully administered without a hitch, the Moderna vaccines donated to the country by the U.S. were safe.

“I want to thank Nigerians for the way they responded to the first batch of Astrazeneca Vaccine. I can say, authoritatively, that we succeeded in administering the four million doses of the vaccine, and we do not have a single expired vaccine,” said Mr Mohammed. “They were all administered to the targeted population. I want to encourage Nigerians to come out also to take the Moderna vaccine.”

On August 2, Nigeria received four million doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines donated by the U.S. Health minister Osagie Ehanire said the vaccines were undergoing validation by the country’s drug regulator.

The U.S. government last week shipped nearly 10 million doses to Nigeria and South Africa.

(NAN)