Nigeria Receives 1st Batch Of COVID-19 Vaccine Via COVAX Facility - Authorities

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd March, 2021) The first batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19 was delivered on Tuesday to Nigeria via the WHO-led COVAX global distribution facility, the presidential personal assistant on new media, Bashir Ahmad said.

Last week, Ghana became the first country to receive a batch of free anti-coronavirus vaccine doses through the COVAX initiative. The Ivory Coast became the second state in Africa to receive a vaccine through the COVAX facility.

"Nigeria has just received the first batch of Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID�19 vaccine," Ahmad said on Twitter.

According to Tolu Ogunlesi, the presidential special assistant on digital and new media, the aircraft brought 3.9 million doses of the vaccine to the international airport in Abuja.

Nigeria plans to inoculate 40 percent of its 200-million population this year and 30 percent more in 2022. The African country has recorded over 156,000 cases of COVID-19 and over 1,900 fatalities.