The Government of Oyo State has said that it is conducting a sterility test on the 127,740 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines it received from the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHDA).
This was made known by the Commissioner for Health, Bashir Bello, on Wednesday in Ibadan while updating journalists on the result of the weekly state’s Executive Council meeting.
The commissioner said complaints and rejection of the vaccine by some countries, especially European countries, over the safety status of the vaccine, spurred the decision.
“The sterility test is to determine if the vaccines do not have another 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 result of the sterility test and other safety measures would determine when to administer the vaccines to the people of Oyo State.
“We too in Oyo State have to take some basic precautionary measures. One of such was 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 operations in local government areas; makeshift centres, for people in large areas, particularly high incident areas and the third centre will be for specialised groups.
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