THE National Agency for Food and Drug Administration Control (NAFDAC) has warned Nigerians against fake COVID-19 vaccines in the country, stressing that no vaccine has been approved by the agency.
Mojisola Adeyeye, NAFDAC director-general, made this known in a statement on Friday.
She said that the agency was yet to receive applications from COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers and had not approved any for the populace.
She stressed that “COVID-19 vaccines are new, and the side effects or adverse events must be well monitored. Therefore, if NAFDAC does not approve, the public should not use.”
“There are reports of fake vaccines in Nigeria. NAFDAC is pleading with the public to beware. No COVID-19 vaccines have been approved by NAFDAC. Fake vaccines can cause COVID-like illnesses or other serious diseases that could kill.”
Read Also: COVID-19: Why Nigeria cases are low – Expert
While stressing that COVID-19 vaccines should not be ordered by any company or corporation, NAFDAC noted that genuine vaccine manufacturing companies knew that they had to submit their applications to NAFDAC for approval before making them available to the public.
“However, NAFDAC is discussing with manufacturers of candidate COVID-19 vaccines concerning potential Emergency Use Authorization (EUA), registration or licensing of their product as the case may be,” she said.
“The Agency assures applicants that if Phase 3 clinical data are very convincing and robust with regards to safety and efficacy, and the vaccine has been submitted for WHO for Emergency Use Listing, NAFDAC will welcome the application for Emergency Use Authorisation in Nigeria.”
VISIT ICIR COVID-19 DASHBOARD
Osagie Ehanire, Nigeria’s health minister, has said the country will be receiving 10 million doses of coronavirus vaccine in March. These will be in addition to about 100,000 free COVID-19 vaccines the country will be getting this month based on a COVAX arrangement put in place by the World Health Organisation and its partners.
Since its outbreak in March, Nigeria has recorded 107,345 COVID-19 cases with 1,413 fatalities and over 84,535 recoveries. The country is currently experiencing the second wave of the virus with more infections being recorded in the past month than at any other time.
You can reach out to me on Twitter via: vincent_ufuoma