Nearly 4 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have arrived in the Nigerian capital Abuja, the third and largest delivery to date to an African country through the global COVAX initiative, which was created to ensure that low- and middle-income countries have access to vaccines.
The COVAX program sent 3.94 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, from Mumbai to Abuja, according to a joint statement from UNICEF, working in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), GAVI, an international vaccine alliance and Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.
Nigeria is Africa’s most populous nation with more than 200 million inhabitants and recently experienced a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases. As of Tuesday, the West African nation has registered a total of 156,017 cases, including 1,915 deaths.
Tuesday’s delivery is part of a first wave of vaccines arriving in Nigeria that will continue in the coming days and weeks, the statement said.
“After a year of disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are today celebrating the efforts being made to get the vaccine to Nigeria. With more than 150,000 Nigerians infected with the virus and more than 1,800 lives lost, the road to recovery for the people of Nigeria can finally begin, said Peter Hawkins, UNICEF’s national representative. “This is a very important occasion – the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines in Nigeria is crucial to curb the pandemic. The only way out of the crisis is to ensure that vaccinations are available to everyone. ”
The COVAX program is expected to deliver approximately 90 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Africa during the first quarter of 2021, according to the world’s largest health organization and UNICEF. Nigeria is among 92 countries worldwide that will receive vaccines free of charge through the COVAX initiative. Another 90 countries and eight territories have agreed to pay for doses.
However, the COVAX initiative has been hampered by the severely limited global supply of doses as well as logistical problems that delayed the global distribution of vaccines. The long-awaited program has hardly hoped that it would quickly secure vaccines for the world’s most vulnerable people.
Ghana begins its vaccination campaign on Tuesday, after being the first country to receive COVAX vaccines last week with a delivery of 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Its inoculation campaign from March 2 to 15 will take place in 43 districts that are the epicenter of the pandemic there.
Ivory Coast, which received 504,000 doses last week, began firing on Monday in the commercial capital Abidjan.
“This is a landmark for the country and the COVAX facility’s mission to help end the acute phase of the pandemic by enabling fair access to these vaccines worldwide. We are pleased to see that Nigeria is among the first to receive the doses from COVAX, says Thabani Maphosa, CEO of Country Programs at Gavi, the vaccine alliance.
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