The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, has approved Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for use in Nigeria.
NAFDAC Director-General, Dr. Mojisola Adeyeye disclosed this while briefing journalists on Thursday, in Abuja.
According to her, the vaccine can be stored at 2 to 8-degree centigrade.
AstraZeneca vaccine was recently approved by the World Health Organisation, WHO. The vaccine also known as ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, or AZD1222, is a viral vector vaccine.
The NAFDAC boss said the body got the dossier of the vaccine a week ago and its safety committee went to work immediately to evaluate its safety and efficacy for Nigerians.
She said there are three additional vaccines undergoing evaluation, but the evaluation on Astrazeneca shows that the vaccine is effective against the UK variant of the virus which has been reported in Nigeria.
Dr Adeyeye disclosed that the South African variant has not been reported in Nigeria, adding that the agency has over 30 herbal medicine undergoing review for listing.