The United States Government has announced the donation of 2.5 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine to Nigeria this week.
This brings the total number of doses of Covid-19 vaccines donated to Nigeria either in partnership with COVAX or bilaterally, to more than 13.5 million doses. This disclosure is contained in a public statement issued by the United States Embassy in Nigeria on Thursday, December 9, 2021, and can be seen on its website.
The statement says that the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA) received the vaccines and ensured they were taken to cold storage with plans to distribute to over 3,000 health facilities across all 36 states and FCT Abuja.
What the US Government is saying in the statement
The US stated that the vaccines will be made available at major markets, shopping malls, event centres, motor parks, airports, places of employment, and religious institutions as part of Nigeria’s mass vaccination campaign.
The statement from the US Government reads, ‘’The U.S. Embassy proudly welcomed the arrival of 2.5 million Pfizer vaccine doses in Abuja this week. The National Primary Health Care Development Agency received the vaccines, ensuring they were taken to cold storage to prepare for distribution to over 3,000 health facilities across all 36 states and FCT-Abuja.
‘’Over the next several weeks, the vaccines will be available at major markets, shopping malls, event centres, motor parks, airports, places of employment, and religious institutions as part of Nigeria’s mass vaccination campaign.
‘’To date, 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.
‘’This includes 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, 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.’’
The statement also noted 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.
What you should know
The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, had earlier this month, pointed out that the Covid-19 pandemic won’t end for any country until it ends for all countries. He noted that this is why the United States is committed to helping end the pandemic in Nigeria and everywhere.
The United States had expressed its commitment to donating over 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.
