Nigeria will tomorrow, Tuesday receive 3.92 million doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines.

This was disclosed in a joint statement by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the World Health Organization(WHO) in Abuja.

The country will be the third West African country to receive the vaccine after Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire.

NPHCDA Executive Director, Faisal Shuaib, said the government is fully prepared to deliver the vaccine to Nigerians as health workers’ training has commenced, and the cold chain facilities are ready at all levels.

Mr. Shuaib noted that the country has a robust cold chain system capable of storing all types of COVID-19 vaccines “in accordance with the required temperature”.

“We are therefore confident that we will have a very effective rollout of the vaccines starting with our critical health workers, who are in the front line providing the health care we need”, Mr. Shuaib added.

Peter Hawkins, Nigeria UNICEF representative said the vaccine is part of the overall 16 million doses earlier announced to be delivered to Nigeria in batches by the COVAX facility as part of the unprecedented global efforts to equitable access to the COVID-19 vaccine.

Walter Kazadi Mulombo, WHO Nigeria representative urged Nigerians to ensure the virus is contained as COVAX facility has worked hard for Nigeria to get the vaccine, which he described as a critical tool against COVID-19.

Mr. Mulombo said the vaccination programs will take close to a year.

Eligible Nigerians to access the vaccine are age 18, and above, Peoples Gazette has learnt.