*Experts have advised the Federal Government that it may need to buy other type of vaccines that do not require low temperature as Pfizer in future

Alexander Davis | ConsumerConnect

If proper and adequate arrangements are not made for their transportation and storage, virologists and other medical experts have warned that 100,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine Nigeria is expecting soon may become useless after all.

The experts, including Dr. Patrick Dakum, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Institute of Human Virology, Nigeria; Dr. Oladipo Kolawole, a medical virologist, and David Olaleye, a professor of Virology at the University of Ibadan (UI), in separate interviews with The Punch, urged the government to ensure proper storage and transportation of the vaccine to achieve its desired result among the population.

Prof. Babatunde Salako, Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, in an interview Saturday, was reported to have said there was no enough space to store the vaccine in the country at the moment.

According to Salako, another major challenge would be how to transport the vaccine at the temperature of -70 degree centigrade to rural areas.

He noted that in future, Nigeria may need to buy other type of vaccines that do not require low temperature as Pfizer

The Federal Government recently announced it is expecting 100,000 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech Coronavirus vaccine before the end of January 2021.

Faisal Shuaib, Executive Director of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, who disclosed this at a press conference of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, said the country would later in the year receive 42 million free doses of COVID-19 vaccines.

However, Dr. Dakum, in an interview Sunday disclosed that the shipping and storage condition of Pfizer vaccine needed -70 degrees Centigrade, and there must be constant power supply at the storage facilities.

The CEO of the Institute of Human Virology rather warned that the vaccine would be useless if these conditions were not met before importation into the country.