Federal Government Approves Sinopharm As COVID Vaccine

Faisal Shuaib, executive director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), says Sinopharm BBIBP-CorV COVID-19 vaccine has been approved for use in Nigeria.

He disclosed this yesterday, at a media briefing in Abuja.

The approval of the Sinopharm vaccine comes weeks after NAFDAC approved the Moderna and Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccines for emergency use in Nigeria.

The Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine is an inactivated COVID-19 vaccine and had been approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for emergency use.

Speaking yesterday, Shuaib said the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) approved the vaccine three days ago.

“NAFDAC has approved Sinopharm vaccine. The approval was done three days ago. And yes, Sinopharm vaccine has also received WHO certification,” he said.

“So, it is a potential vaccine that we could use.

“There are so many vaccines out there, but one thing that we are very clear about is that we are not going to use all the available vaccines in Nigeria.

“At some point, we are going to draw a line in terms of the number of vaccines we would use, so that we can keep a close watch on the number of vaccines we are utilising in Nigeria.”