The U.S. has donated 2.5 million Pfizer vaccine doses to Nigeria, to help fight the COVID-19 virus.
This was disclosed in a statement released by the US Embassy in Nigeria.
According to the statement “over the next several weeks, the vaccines will be available at major markets, shopping malls, event centers, motor parks, airports, places of employment, and religious institutions as part of Nigeria’s mass vaccination campaign“.
The National Primary Health Care Development Agency who received the vaccines, ensured that they will be taken to cold storage to prepare for distribution to over 3,000 health facilities across all 36 states and FCT-Abuja.
So far, the United States has donated more than 13.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine in partnership with COVAX, and has also provided more than $119 million in COVID-19 related health assistance to Nigeria.
As U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken noted earlier this month, “The COVID-19 pandemic won’t end for any country until it ends for all countries. Otherwise, the virus will keep replicating around the world, people will keep getting sick and dying, and we won’t be able to safely reopen our economies or travel around the world for business and tourism the way we used to. That’s why the United States is committed to helping end the pandemic in Nigeria and everywhere.”
To this the United States has reiterated its commitment to donating more than one billion vaccine doses around the world by early 2022. This includes in African countries primarily through the COVAX initiative.
Also improving equitable distribution remains a priority for the United States so as to prevent the emergence of new variants that threaten populations everywhere.
Emmanuel Ukoh
