COVAX: How Nigeria Received Over 20 Million Doses In Two Years

On the night of Feb. 27, 2020, Nigeria reported its first case of COVID-19 in the country. The case was an Italian citizen who works in Nigeria and returned from Milan, Italy to Lagos, Nigeria on the 25th of February 2020.

He was confirmed by the Virology Laboratory of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, part of the Laboratory Network of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control. The patient was clinically stable, with no serious symptoms, and managed at the Infectious Disease Hospital in Yaba, Lagos.

After this incident, the Nigerian government began to control the widespread of the virus; enacting several lockdown measures and protocols, supplementary funds, an operational task force team as well as upgrading the functionalities of the healthcare system to be able to attend to COVID cases. Also, the government initiated talks with several developed countries to secure vaccines for its citizens. 

After gathering several media reports in two years, Twentyten Daily discovered that Nigeria had received over 20 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine from different countries and support groups. The country received the Oxford-AstraZeneca, Johnson and Johnson, Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and Covishield vaccine within the period. 

Twentyten Daily had earlier reported how Nigeria received over 9 million COVID-19 vaccines in six months. The report tracked a total of 9,916,320 doses within the first year of its virus in the country from several manufacturing agencies. Twentyten Daily also followed the advent of several variants of the virus reported in the country. The report explained that about five types of virus have been reported since the day of inception.

However, further findings showed that the country received more Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines from the COVAX facility by the UK government within the period.

According to the Nigeria Center For Disease Control, Nigeria has over 254,500 confirmed cases with over 249,000 discharged and 3142 deaths. World data tracked that the country had received  26.5 million doses of COVAX with about  8.09 million people vaccinated.

Securing the COVID Vaccines

On March 2nd 2021, Nigeria received its first 3.94 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine through the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Assess Facility, COVAX.  This made the country the third African nation to benefit from the COVAX facility after Ghana and Ivory Coast.

The government disclosed that it has  received additional 698,880 doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine against the rampaging coronavirus pandemic on August 16. The Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency , Faisal Shuaib, disclosed this during the flag-off of the second phase of vaccination against the pandemic in the country.

Telecommunication giant, MTN, also donated 300,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines to the country. The Chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, while speaking at its weekly briefing, said, “This is acknowledged with thanks as we encourage other partners to contribute towards the fight against COVID-19.”

The Nigerian government received 4,000,080 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine donated by the Biden-Harris administration of the United States of America. The vaccines were delivered through the COVAX facility – a vaccine alliance aimed at ensuring equitable distribution of vaccines globally.

From the African Union (AU), The Nigerian government received 177,600 doses of Johnson and Johnson (J&J) COVID-19 vaccines .This came barely one week after Nigeria received about 4 million doses of Moderna vaccines, which were donated by the government of the United States of America.

On April 6, the government received 100,000 doses of Covishield COVID-19 vaccines from India.

The federal government said it received additional 1,123,200 doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. Faisal Shuaib, executive director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, said the latest shipments were received as part of the 39,800,000 doses procured by the federal government.

Nigeria unveiled 699,760 doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine donated by the UK government via the COVAX facility.The Acting British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Gill Atkinson, joined the Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, NPHCDA, Dr Faisal Shuaib, and the World Health Organisation Country Representative to Nigeria, Dr. Walter Kazadi Mulombo for the unveiling, alongside other dignitaries.

The government of France also donated to the Nigerian government 501,600 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines from. The vaccines were delivered through the COVAX facility.

The United States Government announced the donation of 2.5 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine to Nigeria. The statement says that the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency received the vaccines and ensured they were taken to cold storage with plans to distribute to over 3,000 health facilities across all 36 states and FCT Abuja.

Ms. Catriona Laing, United Kingdom High Commissioner to Nigeria, said the UK Government has donated 1.2 million COVID-19 vaccines, through COVAX to Nigeria. The Envoy said in a statement in Lagos that the vaccines administered in the country were recognised by the UK Government.

An official from the US sent Nigeria 3.2 million doses of Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine. The vaccines, sent under the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 vaccines global access program (COVAX), were delivered to Nigerian authorities at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in the capital Abuja.

On Feb 7 Nigeria received 2 million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine from Finland, Greece and Slovenia. The delivery was part of a donation pledge by the European Union to African countries via the COVAX initiative launched by the World Health Organization in 2020 to distribute vaccines to some of the world’s poorest people.