Nigeria to receive 100,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines by January-NPHCDA
By Peter Usman/:
As a measure to fight coronavirus pandemic in the country, Nigeria will receive at least 100,000 doses of the Pfizer and BioNTech approved COVID-19 vaccines by the end of January.
The Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, NPHCDA, Faisal Shuaib, disclosed this at the Presidential Task Force, PTF on COVID-19 briefing on Tuesday.
He said a letter announcing this allocation in the first phase of the delivery of the vaccines is expected from the COVAX facility during the week.
“In the first phase through the COVAX facility, we expect to receive approximately 100,000 doses of the Pfizer and bioNtech vaccine by the end of January,” he said.
Mr Shuaib noted the country is expecting free 42 million doses of vaccines in the second phase through the COVAX facility, an initiative run by the vaccine alliance, GAVI, to ensure equitable access to a COVID vaccine.
He said the second phase will be “a combination of all the available approved vaccines currently in the market.” These vaccines will, however, cover only about 20 per cent of Nigeria’s population, Mr Faisal said.
Nigeria has over 200 million persons as per population.
Amidst the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, many countries are already on the queue to access effective vaccines for its citizens.
The Nigerian government had earlier inaugurated an 18-member national COVID-19 task team to ensure ‘vaccine security’ when it finally gets to the country.
