SGF: Nigeria will receive 4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines on Tuesday

The government, which had earlier announced that the vaccines will arrive in the country by the end of February, later said it may be in the first week of March.

But in his latest message, the SGF said: “I can assure you that the vaccines are coming and they are coming very quickly barring any change in the delivery plan that has been released to us by UNICEF.

“We believe that our vaccines should depart India on the 1st of March, 2021 at 10:30 pm and arrive in Abuja on the 2nd of March 2021 by 11:10 am. And we are making preparations for that.

“We are supposed to have 16 million in the first quarter from the COVAX facility, and expecting that by the time they supply all the range, we are expecting that they would supply about 84 million doses of the COVAX facility, which is free of charge and is supposed to cover at least 20 per cent of the Nigerian population.”

Global Assess Facility (COVAX), a World Health Organization (WHO)-backed programme, has been saddled with the responsibility of sharing two billion doses of vaccines across 92 low-and middle-income countries.

The SGF added that the federal government will still get vaccines from a combination of Oxford AstraZeneca and Johnson and Johnson vaccines.

He said 41 million doses are expected from the second source and assured that AstraZeneca has a good range in terms of storage which does not come with any complications because it can be stored in +2 to +8 Degree Celsius and in cold chain facilities that are available in all local governments and wards in the country.

Mustapha commended the nation’s health workers and various frontline workers for their efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic.