Nigeria receives first batch of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine

Nigeria has received its first batch of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

Bashir Ahmad, personal assistant on new media to President Muhammadu Buhari, shared the news via Twitter on Tuesday.

JUST IN: The first batch of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines has arrived Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.

— Bashir Ahmad (@BashirAhmaad) March 2, 2021

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The expected 3.9m doses of the vaccine are part of an overall 16 million doses planned to be delivered to Nigeria in batches through the COVAX facility.

In February, the AstraZeneca vaccine was approved by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) for use in Nigeria.

The federal government, on Monday, asked Nigerians to register for COVID-19 vaccination via the portal of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA).

T.E.A.C.H, a strategy for the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines was also launched to enable Nigerians to register for the vaccine and obtain pre-vaccination numbers.

According to the NPHCDA, frontline health workers, COVID-19 rapid response teams, laboratory network, petrol station workers and strategic leaders will be among the first to be vaccinated.

Adults aged 50 years and above and those with underlying health conditions will also be vaccinated in its phase two rollout.

As of Tuesday, 156, 017 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Nigeria.

Of the total cases, 133, 904 have recovered from the infection while 1915 deaths have been recorded.