One week after the commencement of the vaccination against COVID-19 in Nigeria, eight states are yet to vaccinate anyone, FIJ can report.

Nigeria received 3.94 million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines on March 2. At Monday’s briefing, Boss Mustapha, the Chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, also announced the receipt of an additional 300,000 doses from telecom giants MTN.

Nigeria has since commenced vaccination, with priority given to healthcare workers and those at higher risk of the infection upon registration at the portal.

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Data released by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, NPHCDA on Tuesday morning, however, showed that Abia, Niger, Kebbi, Sokoto, Taraba, Zamfara, Oyo and Kogi states are yet to commence the process.

NPCDA initially confirmed the delivery of the vaccines to all states of the country except Kogi.

Yahaya Bello, the state governor, who has always doubted the existence of the virus in Kogi, recently expressed unwillingness to vaccinate let alone mandate the people to do so. 

“I’m not going to subject the people of Kogi state to vaccination, or I will not make them guinea pigs,” he had said.

“I don’t need the vaccine; nothing is wrong with me. I’m hale and hearty — 100 percent hearty.”

So far, Lagos, the epicentre of the virus, Jigawa and Bauchi are the highest performing states with 36,009, 19,226 and 14,422 people vaccinated respectively.

Meanwhile, only Ebonyi and Borno states have administered the vaccine to less than 10 people.

The data also revealed that a total of 122,410 people have received the first jab of the vaccine as of Tuesday morning.