AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccines Arrive Nigeria

By Ahmed Rahma

The first batch of the COVID-19 vaccines produced by AstraZeneca in conjunction with the Oxford University, the United Kingdom, has arrived in Nigeria, one of the presidential aides, Mr Bashir Ahmad, has announced.

Nigeria had been expecting to receive almost 4 million doses of the vaccine on Tuesday for free, according to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha, from the World Health Organisation (WHO).

In a tweet this morning via his official Twitter handle, Mr Ahmad disclosed that the drugs came into the country through the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja on an Emirates flight. He said the doses touched down at the airport at about 11:46am.

“The first batch of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines has arrived Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja,” Mr Ahmad said in the post.

Also recall that it was reported that the Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Faisal Shuaib, had said that the AstraZeneca vaccine will arrive in Nigeria in batches.

According to him, the country has been allocated 16 million doses and from late February 2021, the jabs will begin to enter the country for the use of Nigerians.

At the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 briefing on Monday, the health expert said Nigeria will also stick with the vaccine despite South Africa rejecting it based on its epidemiological and equity assessment done by WHO.

“As earlier communicated, Nigeria is no longer expecting the 100,000 doses of the Pfizer/BIONtech vaccine through the COVAX facility but has been allocated about 16 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

“This was based on epidemiological and equity assessment done by WHO,” he said.

He noted that Nigeria was considered one of the countries ready to receive the Pfizer vaccine but because the distribution intended to achieve public health value, it was not practical to provide every capable country with the vaccine due to its limited quantity.

Yesterday, Business Post reported that an online portal for the registration for the COVID-19 vaccination was launched.

Nigeria intends to first inoculate frontline health workers, security officials and others.