Nigeria receives 4m doses of Moderna COVID vaccine from US

The federal government has received 4.08m doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine from the United States.

The vaccine had been approved by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) for emergency use in Nigeria after examination.

The vaccine doses, according to Premium Times, were delivered through the COVAX facility and arrived in Abuja, the federal capital territory (FCT) around 2:15 am on Sunday.

The vaccine doses were received by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) on behalf of the federal government and stored at the country’s National Strategic Cold Store near Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja.

While addressing the media on Monday morning in Abuja, Faisal Shuaib, director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), said the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19, purchased 60 ultra-cold chain equipment ahead of the delivery and have since allocated one to each of the 36 states.

This is the second batch of vaccines received by Nigeria after the country had run out of the initial four million doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine received from the COVAX facility.

Shuaib, who announced that the vaccines had been exhausted, said the country was expecting three additional brands of the vaccine.

He said the country has received communication for the delivery of 3.9 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine, four million doses of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, 3.5 million doses of Pfizer-Bio-N Tech COVID-19 vaccine, and 29.8 million doses of Johnson & Johnson (Jassen) COVID-19 vaccine in coming weeks.