(5 Mar 2021) Nigeria began its vaccination campaign on Friday in the capital Abuja, days after receiving nearly four million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, delivered by the COVAX initiative.
Ngong Cyprian, a doctor working at the National Hospital in Abuja, was the first person to receive the jab.
"I feel great receiving the vaccine, being the very first person to receive the vaccine here in Nigeria," he said. "But I will feel better when about 70% of Nigerians are vaccinated."
Other health workers also received the vaccine during the event.
"People should take it. It's the best we can get at the moment and Nigeria is lucky: out of the 10 million vaccines that have been delivered globally under the Covax, Nigeria has received four million," said Peter Hawkins, representative of UNICEF in Nigeria.
The COVAX programme shipped 3.94 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, from Mumbai to Abuja, according to a joint statement from UNICEF, which is working in partnership with the World Health Organization, GAVI, which is an international vaccine alliance, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.
Nigeria is Africa's most populous nation, with more than 200 million residents, and it recently experienced a surge of COVID-19 cases.
As of Friday, the West African nation had recorded a cumulative total of 157,671 cases, including 1,951 deaths.
The country is expected to receive more vaccines in the coming days and weeks.
The COVAX programme is expected to deliver around 90 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Africa in the first quarter of 2021, in the largest vaccine procurement and supply operation in history, according to the World Health Organization and UNICEF.
Nigeria is among 92 countries worldwide that will receive vaccines for free through the COVAX initiative. Another 90 countries and eight territories have agreed to pay for doses.
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