Four million vaccines from the COVAX facility will arrive in Nigeria on March 2, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha said on Saturday night.
Mustapha, who is also the Chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 stated this in an interview with the media.
He said, “Well, I can assure you that the vaccines are coming and coming very quickly. Barring any change in the delivery plan released to us by UNICEF, the vaccines will depart India on March 1, 2021 by 10.30 pm and arrive Abuja on March 2, 2021 at about 11.10 am.
“We are making preparations for about 4 million doses of vaccines from the COVAX facility, We are supposed to have about 16 million in the first quarter.
“We are expecting 84 million doses from the COVAX facility which is free of charge and will cover about 20 per cent of the Nigerian population.
“We also have another source of vaccines from the Harvard facility, which is the African Vaccine Action Team. We are expecting about 41 million doses of AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.
“Everything we are expecting from COVAX is AstraZeneca which has a good range in terms of storage because it uses +2 – +8 per cent of refrigeration. We already have cold chain facilities in all local governments, constituencies and wards in the country.
“I must caution Nigerians that it is going to be a combination of vaccines with non-pharmaceutical measures.
“Non-pharmaceutical measures will remain in place, wearing of masks, keeping of social distancing, the need for personal hygiene and taking responsibility to ensure that we do not congregate in large gatherings and avoid travels that are not necessary. ”
