WHO denies Nigeria disqualification news, says country was never disqualified from accessing COVID-19 vaccines

Following the news making the rounds which claimed that the World Health Organization (WHO) has disqualified Nigeria from accessing covid-19 vaccines from the COVAX facility, the world health body has denied the reports saying the country is well on track to receive its first share this month.

Dismissing the news is the WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, who said that only four countries out of 13 were going to receive the limited 320,000 Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines. He went ahead to list the countries as – Cape Verde, Rwanda, South Africa and Tunisia.

According to Dr Matshidiso, the criteria used by the United Nations Agency for distribution are current mortality rates, new cases and trends, and capacity to store the vaccine at – 70 degrees Celsius, for selecting the recipient countries.

Stating futher, it urged African countries to fine-tune their planning for covid-19 immunization campaigns, stressing that it cannot afford to waste a single dose of these vaccines.

The Country Representative of WHO, Dr Walter Mulombo Kazadi, in a tweet stated: “WHO is part of COVAX facility and can never disqualify a Member State from accessing an approved vaccine for their population. I call upon members of the press in Nigeria and globally to contribute to fighting misinformation

“Earlier, I emphasized WHO stand in ensuring equitable distribution of the COVID19 vaccines across the world and in Nigeria as one of the AMC countries. Covid19 vaccines portfolio growing, and Nigeria is set to receive its first share this month.”

COVAX is co-led by Gavi, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and WHO. Its aim is to accelerate the development and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines and to guarantee fair and equitable access for every country in the world, especially low and middle-income countries in Africa. One of Nigeria’s leading newspapers, The Punch and an online media Sahara Reporters had reported that WHO had disqualified the country from receiving the COVID-19 vaccines citing storage reasons