About four million doses of the COVID 19 vaccine arrived Nigeria on Tuesday.
The vaccine was shipped to Nigeria through the COVAX Facility, a partnership between CEPI, Gavi, UNICEF and WHO.
A presidential aide, Bashir Ahmed, announced the development on his Twitter handle.
He wrote: “Nigeria has just received the first batch of Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID—19 vaccine.”
It was gathered that 3.94 million doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, arrived from Mumbai to Abuja around 11.30 am.
The United Nations said it will support the vaccination campaign in Nigeria.
UN Resident Coordinator in Nigeria, Edward Kallon, said, “The UN Country Team in Nigeria reiterates its commitment to support the vaccination campaign in Nigeria and help contain the spread of the virus.
“The arrival of these vaccines in Abuja today marks a milestone for the COVAX Facility in its unprecedented effort to deliver at least 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines globally by the end of 2021,” he stated
Managing Director for Country Programmes at Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, Thabani Maphosa, added, “This is a landmark moment for the country and the COVAX Facility’s mission to help end the acute phase of the pandemic by enabling equitable access to these vaccines across the world.
“We are glad to see Nigeria is amongst the first receiving the doses from COVAX, thanks to the excellent level of preparedness put in place by the Government of Nigeria.”
The National Primary Health Care Development Agency had said it would commence the vaccination of Nigerians in priority groups, starting with frontline healthcare workers.