COVAX Ships First Batch Of Covid-19 Vaccine To Nigeria

On Tuesday, March 2, 2021, Nigeria received its first batch of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India(SII) and shipped via the COVAX facility.

As reported by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the United Nations(UN) system in Nigeria told reporters that the COVAX initiative had fulfilled its shipping of  3.94 million doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine while also hinting that more doses would arrive in the coming weeks or months.

UN Resident Coordinator in Nigeria Edward Kallon also added that the UN was committed to supporting vaccination campaigns that ensure equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines globally.

“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,” he said.

Other African countries have also benefitted from the COVAX initiative. As of Wednesday, February 3, 2021, Senegal received delivery of 324,000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

Other African countries include:

• Ghana – 600,000 doses
• Ivory Coast – 500,000 doses
• Nigeria – 3.92 million doses
• Angola – 624,000 doses
• Democratic Republic of Congo – 1,700,000 doses
• Kenya – 1,000,000 doses
• The Gambia – 36,000 doses
• Rwanda – 240,000 doses