The Oyo State government has said it is conducting sterility test on the 127,740 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines it received from the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHDA).
The state Commissioner for Health, Bashir Bello, made this known on Wednesday in Ibadan while briefing journalists on the outcome of the weekly State Executive Council meeting. Mr Bello said complaints and rejection of the vaccine by some countries, particularly some European countries, over the safety status of the vaccine necessitated the decision.
“The sterility test is to determine if the vaccines do not actually have other secondary form of infective substance. These are being carried out at our two laboratories; and in the next few days, we will have the result,” he stated.
The commissioner said the outcome of the sterility test and other precautionary measures would determine when to administer the vaccines on the people of Oyo State.
“We too, in Oyo State, have to take some basic precautionary measures. One of such is the provision of a safe place to keep the vaccines to ensure their potency.
“The type that we got is the one that can only operate between +2 degrees centigrade and +8 degrees centigrade.”
He said three centres were being prepared for the vaccination.
They are hospitals and immunisation centres already in existence in local government areas; temporary centres for people specifically in large areas, “particularly high incident areas and the third centre will be for specialised groups.”