Nigeria to receive 100,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines – NPHCDA
Familugba Victor
The Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Faisal Shuaib, has said Nigeria will receive a minimum of 100, 000 doses of the Pfizer and BioNTech approved COVID-19 vaccines by the end of January.
He made this known at the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 briefing on Tuesday. Shuaib disclosed that 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.
Meanwhile, he hinted that 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 the COVID vaccine.
According to him, there is “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.
Amidst the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, many countries are already on the queue to access effective vaccines for its citizens. In preparation for their arrival, the Nigerian government has inaugurated an 18-member national COVID-19 task team to ensure ‘vaccine security’.
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