As part of an ongoing vaccination campaign, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has announced that there has been no reported case of death from the COVID-19 vaccine in Nigeria since the country rolled out its vaccination programme.
In a tweet via its verified twitter handle @NCDCgov on Wednesday 16th February 2022, the NCDC said Nigerian academics and independent researchers have continued to study the safety of the vaccine, adding that they are safe and effective.
“There has been no COVID-19 vaccine related mortality and hospitalization in Nigeria since the commencement of vaccination,” the tweet stated.
HOW TRUE IS THIS CLAIM?
The first case of the coronavirus in Nigeria was recorded on 27th February 2020 but vaccination did not commence until 6th March 2021, with priority given to frontline health workers at a time when the country had recorded close to 165, 000 confirmed cases of infection and 2000 deaths.
Nigeria has now administered at least 20,617,588 doses of COVID vaccines and although about 10, 113 cases of mild Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFI) and 86 cases of moderate to severe incidents have been reported, there has been no record of any adverse reaction to the COVID-19 vaccine in the country.
Most of the COVID-19 jabs require two doses and at the current average of about 192,919 doses administered each day, Nigeria could vaccinate up to 10 per cent of its estimated 214 million population with at least one shot of the vaccine by September.
VERDICT
TRUE. The number of infection of the corona virus in Nigeria has risen to 254, 182 with 3, 141 total deaths, but no single case of vaccine mortality has been officially recorded.