Nigeria prioritising four COVID-19 vaccines, not including Sinopharm

ABUJA - Nigeria is prioritising the AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, the official heading Nigeria's COVID-19 vaccination campaign said on Tuesday when asked whether the Sinopharm shot would be used in the country.

Dr. Faisal Shuaib, head of Nigeria's primary healthcare agency, said the Sinopharm vaccine had been approved by the national medicines regulator "for emergency use", but rolling it out was not a priority. "We don't want a situation where we may have 10, 20 vaccines that have been globally recognised or listed for emergency use, and then you want to take all 20 vaccines to Nigeria, it doesn't make any sense," he told reporters at a regular COVID briefing.