The Federal Government has received 100,000 doses of Covishield vaccines from India.
Covishield is Serum Institute of India’s version of AZD1222, the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca in collaboration with the University of Oxford.
The Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Boss Mustapha, confirmed this on Tuesday at the national briefing by the PTF in Abuja.
He said: “As you are aware, Nigeria received 3.94 million doses of the COVID-19 Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine on March 2, 2021.
“These vaccines represented the first tranche of about 16 million doses allocated to Nigeria through the COVAX facility, aimed at vaccinating an initial 20 percent of the population.
“More vaccines are also expected from the African Union’s Vaccine Acquisition Task Team, AVATT.
“We shall also be receiving about 100,000 doses of Covishield vaccines donated by the Government of India to Nigeria. This will further boost the number of Nigerians to be vaccinated by about 50,000.
“The PTF through the Federal Ministry of Health and the National Primary Health Centre Development Agency prioritised the initial consignment of vaccines to cover frontline medical personnel, strategic leadership, and those above the age of 50 years across the nation.
“Majority of sub-national entities have already received their allocation and administration is progressing. As of April 5, 2021, about 963,802 persons in Nigeria had received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
“The overarching objective is to vaccinate 70 percent of Nigeria’s population between 2021 and 2022.”
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the vaccines were presented to the PTF by the acting Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr. Velagaleti Surendra.
(NAN)
