Tag: West African Vaccine News

Nigeria have received nearly four million doses of the COVID-19 AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine, shipped via the COVAX Facility, a partnership between CEPI, UNICEF, Gavi and WHO (World Health Organisation). 

It is believed that COVAX have delivered 3.94 million doses of the life changing vaccine, which arrived from Mumbai into Abuja around 11:30am yesterday morning.

Presidential aid, Bashir Ahmad, tweeted yesterday “Nigeria has just received the first batch of Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine”. The welcomed news comes as the nation plans to successfully vaccinate 40% of the Nigerian population this year.

UN Resident Coordinator in Nigeria, Edward Kallon, stated “The UN Country Team in Nigeria reiterates its commitment to support the vaccination campaign in Nigeria and help contain the spread of the virus.

“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”.

In accordance with the National strategy, front healthcare workers will be inoculated first.

WHO representative in Nigeria, Dr Walter Kazadi Mulombo, said “It is heart-warming to witness this epoch-making event and WHO wishes to congratulate the government of Nigeria for its participation in the global vaccine collaboration (COVAX) efforts and its commitment to protecting Nigerians against this pandemic.

“Vaccines are a critical new tool in the battle against COVID-19; therefore, this is a step in the right direction. These vaccines have undergone rigorous regulatory processes at global and country level and have been deemed safe and effective.”

For more information about the West African Food and Beverage sector, please Click Here

Source: The Punch, March 2021

The UK Government have announcement yesterday that the Global Vaccine Alliance (GAVI) have agreed that Nigeria will be among the first group of countries to receive 16 million free doses of COVID-19 vaccines through the COVAX Global Vaccines Facilities. 

The British High Commission Office released a statement to the the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) indicating that the free doses will be widely available in the first half of the year.

In the statement, GAVI released the first forecast of countries which are widely available to receive COVID-19 vaccines via the COVAX Advance Market Commitment. The COVAX statement highlighted that it is allocating 330 million vaccine doses to low and lower middle class income countries, including Nigeria.

“As one of the 92 ODA-eligible countries participating in the COVAX AMC initiative, Nigeria will benefit from this arrangement and access free vaccines to cover at least 20 per cent of its population, and the UK is playing a supportive role in ensuring an effective and equitable introduction of COVID-19 vaccines, “it said

The UK are are regarded to be the leading nation tackling the COVID-19 pandemic internationally and so far have pledged over 1.3 billion pounds in UK aid to end the corona virus pandemic as swiftly as possible.

The UK are respected to be one of the largest donors to GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, which over past two decades have contributed towards updating cold chain infrastructure and improving immunisation procedures in low income countries around the world.

Catriona Laing, The British High Commissioner, stated “This news on the COVAX global COVID-19 vaccine rollout brings us one step closer to delivering vaccines to millions of Nigerians”.

She continued “I am please to announce Nigeria will get millions of these free available doses by the end of 2021”.

This positive announcement comes after the BUA Group announced they will be providing 1 million free COVID-19 vaccines to Nigeria in the upcoming weeks.

For more information about the West African Food and Beverage sector, please Click Here

Source: This Day, February 2021