The Federal Government of Nigeria has approved COVID-19 booster shots as the world battles to contain the new Omicron variant.
The Head of Public Relations Unit, the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Mohammad Ohitoto, explained in a statement issued on Friday that the booster shots are for those who have taken their first and second douses of AstraZeneca, Moderna, Pfizer Bio-N-Tech, or 1 dose of Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
He quoted the Executive Director of the agency, Dr Faisal Shuaib, as saying the booster doses are for people from 18 years and above.
The statement added that “Time interval of 6 months or more after receiving the second dose of AstraZeneca, Moderna or Pfizer Bio-N-Tech,” “Time interval of 2 months or more after receiving the Johnson and Johnson vaccine.”
Eligible Nigerians are therefore advised to go to the closest health facility/mass vaccination sites nationwide for the booster doses starting from the 10th of December.
The approval of the booster doses in Nigeria is coming at a time when the world is battling the Omicron COVID-19 variant.
While the country confirmed its first cases of the variant a few days back, South Africa was the first nation to detect the strain although new reports suggest that it might have been in other parts of the world.