The United States on Thursday said it had donated 2.5 million Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine doses to Nigeria.
In a statement by its Embassy, the U.S. said the vaccine doses arrived in Abuja this week and were received by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency and taken to cold storage ahead of distribution.
The vaccines are meant to be distributed to more than 3,000 health facilities across all 36 states of the federation and FCT-Abuja.
According to the statement, the vaccines will be available in major locations for vaccination in the country in the next few weeks.
“Over the next several weeks, the vaccines will be available at major markets, shopping malls, event centers, motor parks, airports, places of employment, and religious institutions as part of Nigeria’s mass vaccination campaign,” the statement read.
“The United States has donated more than 13.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine in partnership with COVAX, or bilaterally to Nigeria.
“Additionally, the United States has provided more than $119 million in COVID-19 related health assistance,” the statement added.
The U.S. Embassy mentioned its
COVID-19 related health assistance to Nigeria to include a 40-bed mobile field hospital, ventilators, and related training for 88 hospitals, personal protective equipment, technical assistance for vaccine readiness, risk communication, and demand generation for vaccines.
Others are “conducting an epidemiological COVID-19 detection and vaccine hesitancy survey, setting up electronic record systems, rapid response teams, training for over 200,000 military and civilian personnel on COVID-19 control measures, and technology for virtual training.”
It added that the United States leveraged the PEPFAR-supported National Integrated Specimen Referral Network (NiSRN) and laboratory investments to support the expansion of the NCDC (153) molecular laboratory network nationwide.
The U.S. assured that it remained committed to helping end the pandemic in Nigeria and everywhere and also committed to donating more than one billion vaccine doses around the world by early 2022.
This includes African countries primarily through the COVAX initiative. Improving equitable distribution remains a priority for the United States to prevent the emergence of new variants that threaten populations everywhere.