3.94 million doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccine have arrived Nigeria on Tuesday, March 2nd, 2021.
This was disclosed in a statement issued by the United Nations(UN) Resident Coordinator in Nigeria, Edward Kallon in Lagos.
The vaccines were manufactured by the Serum Institute of India(SII) and shipped via the COVAX Facility.
Kallon said “The arrival of these vaccines in Abuja today marks a milestone for the COVAX Facility in its unprecedented effort to deliver at least 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines globally by the end of 2021.
“The arrival of the COVID-19 vaccine will enable the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) to commence the vaccination of Nigerians in priority groups, starting with frontline healthcare workers.”
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Managing Director for Country Programmes at Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, Thabani Maphosa, described the arrival of the vaccines as a “a landmark moment for Nigeria.”
“We are glad to see Nigeria is among the first receiving the doses from COVAX, thanks to the excellent level of preparedness put in place by the Government of Nigeria.
“Gavi looks forward to these vaccines being made available to the people most at risk, as soon as possible, and to ensuring that routine immunisation services for other life-threatening infections are also delivered to avoid other disease outbreaks,” he said.
The Federal Government on Monday launched an online registration system for those interested in taking the COVID-19 vaccine in Nigeria.
