The Federal Government has said Nigeria is making efforts to get the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines from China by the end of February.
Newspot reports that the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, made the disclosure to NAN in Abuja.
He said: “What we are engaging with China is in the area of vaccines for COVID-19. We are also looking to import, to acquire significant vaccines from China and other partners too.
“I think in the short immediate time, that is an area we will need China. They have cooperated with us with regards to personal protective equipment and other things in our COVID response.”
Onyeama said that the African Union (AU) was collectively working to receive the vaccine.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has debunked reports that it disqualified any African country from accessing COVID–19 vaccines through the COVAX facility.
The WHO Country Representative in Nigeria, Dr. Walter Kazadi Mulomboo, made the clarification during a joint press conference with the Executive Director of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr. Faisal Shuaib, on Saturday.
According to WHO, Nigeria has received the largest allocation with 16 million doses out of the 88 million AstraZeneca doses allocated to Africa for the first phase.
Mulomboo said, “WHO has not disqualified any country in Africa from accessing COVID-19 vaccines through the COVAX facility, but rather is supporting all countries to access vaccines as quickly as possible.”
Source: Newspot
