U.S. gifts 2.5 million doses of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines to Nigeria

The United States has announced the donation of 2.5 million Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine doses to Nigeria, in a statement by the U.S Embassy on Thursday, December 9, 2021, Top Naija reports.

According to the statement, the vaccine doses arrived in Abuja this week and were received by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency and taken to cold storage in preparation for distribution.

The vaccines are planned to be distributed to over 3,000 health facilities across all 36 states and FCT-Abuja. The statement added that the vaccines in the next few weeks will be available across major locations for vaccination in the country.

“Over the next several weeks, the vaccines will be available at major markets, shopping malls, event centers, motor parks, airports, places of employment, and religious institutions as part of Nigeria’s mass vaccination campaign.

The United States has donated more than 13.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine in partnership with COVAX, or bilaterally to Nigeria.

Additionally, the United States has provided more than $119 million in COVID-19 related health assistance.”the statement read

The COVID19 related health assistance according to the U.S Embassy includes a 40-bed mobile field hospital, ventilators, and related training for 88 hospitals, personal protective equipment, technical assistance for vaccine readiness, risk communication, and demand generation for vaccines.

Others include “conducting an epidemiological COVID-19 detection and vaccine hesitancy survey, setting up electronic record systems, rapid response teams, training for over 200,000 military and civilian personnel on COVID-19 control measures, and technology for virtual training.”

Meanwhile, the Federal Government will today (Friday) begin the administration of booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines.

The Executive Director of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Faisal Shuaib, stated this on Thursday in Abuja as the  Africa Centre for Disease Control, an agency of the African Union, kicked against the introduction of booster doses in African countries.

Nigeria had on March 5,2021 commenced COVID-19 vaccination with a total of 3.94 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from the COVAX institute of India.

This was followed by a vaccination break due to the ban of vaccine transportation by the Serum Institute of India, the main supplier to the COVAX facility.

In August, Nigeria resumed her second phase of vaccine with donations of moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines which were received through donations from foreign countries.

The country also received several doses of the J and J vaccine which it procured through a joint partnership with other African Union countries through the AVATT facility.

So far in Nigeria, only a total of 3,867,815 have been fully vaccinated with a total of 7,449,989 taking the first dose.