As part of the effort to flatten coronavirus curve across Nigeria, the Federal Government has taken delivery of no fewer than 100,000 Oxford/Astrazeneca vaccine doses donated by the Indian Government to eradicate the virus from the country.
Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari has approved transition of the Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19 to the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) on COVID-19, effective from April 1, 2021 and will function up till December 31.
The Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, who made the announcement during a press briefing in Abuja on Tuesday, said that the vaccine will help boost the number of Nigerians to be vaccinated by about 50,000.
Nigeria had received 3.94 million Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine doses from the WHO-backed vaccine initiative COVAX in early March, triggering the commencement of the country’s vaccination drive.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Nigeria had vaccinated 964,387 eligible persons against the Covid-19 virus, according to the National Primary Health Care Development Agency.
The additional vaccines from Indian government were expected to boost the country’s efforts to vaccinate most of its population against the virus across the country.
It would be recalled that the Federal Government had stated that it was seeking to vaccinate no fewer than 70 percent of its over 200 million-strong population to prevent further spread of the virus in Nigeria.
