More Nigerians will receive Moderna COVID-19 jabs after four million vaccines were received from United States government.
The vaccination exercise will commence next week across the country, according to the coordinating agency, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA).
The vaccines which arrived Nigeria on Sunday was received by officials of the United Nations (UN) on behalf of the Nigeria government at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
The Moderna vaccines are the second batch of vaccines to arrive the west African country after four million AstraZeneca vaccines were received in March under the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) arrangement.
“We are excited that this will be another opportunity for us to advance the protection of Nigerians against the COVID-19 virus, especially the Delta variant,” Dr Faisal Shuaib, Executive Director of NPHCDA said Friday.
Shuaib noted that the Nigerian government is seeking to ramp up its vaccination drive as soon as vaccines are received.
He added that the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19 obtained approval to procure 60 ultra-cold chain units, even when there was no clue that the country was going to receive either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, adding that the installation of the ultra-cold chain equipment had commenced across the country in order to keep the vaccines at the right temperature.
