Nigeria received 4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from Covax mechanism

The country is the third on the African continent that has received the drugs through the Covax program, according to the UN.

This Tuesday, Nigeria received a first package of 3.94 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, thus becoming the third African country where the solutions reserved through the Covax program arrive, as reported by the UN through a statement.

“Vaccines are a fundamental new tool in the battle against COVID-19, so this is a step in the right direction. These vaccines have been subjected to rigorous regulations at the global and national level and are considered safe and effective,” stressed the representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) for Nigeria, Walter Kazadi Mulombo.

Covax is an initiative promoted by the WHO, among others, to guarantee global and equitable access to these drugs.

This first batch of vaccines, which landed this Tuesday in Abuja from the Serum Institute of India, is part of a total of 16 million that Covax will provide to the country over the coming months, the National Health Care Development Agency indicated this Monday. Nigerian Primary Health Care (NPHCDA).

“We are fully prepared to begin the distribution of vaccines, we have already started the training of health workers and we have ensured that the cold chain facilities are ready at all levels,” said the executive director of that organization, Faisal. Shuaib,.

The first recipients of the vaccination campaign, according to the NPHCDA, will be health care workers, but also other employees who are "on the front line", such as the military, the police, workers in the oil and gas sector, those They are found at border posts and “strategic leaders.”

Likewise, Nigeria launched a virtual portal this Monday to make it easier for citizens to register and request and schedule a vaccination appointment.

Countries on the African continent are practically last in line in the world when it comes to distributing COVID-19 vaccines.Of the 55 member countries of the African Union, only eleven have begun their national immunization campaigns, especially with vaccines from the Chinese state pharmaceutical company Sinopharm: Morocco, Egypt, Mauritius, Algeria, Seychelles, Equatorial Guinea, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Senegal, Ivory Coast and Ghana.

Relying on the solidarity of Covax, the cold chain of vaccines like Pfizer's - which requires conservation at a temperature of 70 degrees Celsius below zero -, and the patent hurdle that prevents countries with the capacity to produce the medicine , like South Africa and India, are some of Africa's obstacles in the face of the pandemic.