Nigeria has recently approved China’s Sinopharm vaccine against COVID-19, the head of the country’s primary healthcare agency has said.
Nigeria has been allocated 7.7 million doses of the vaccine through the COVAX scheme aimed at providing vaccines to developing countries.
The Director General of Nigeria’s National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Faisal Shuaib did not say when the Sinopharm doses would arrive or be administered.
Cases are rising in Nigeria with daily new infections increasing 10 fold from levels seen in July, according to a Reuters tally.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country with some 200 million people, has vaccinated only a small fraction of the population, largely due to lack of supply.
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So far, some 2 million people, or 1 percent of the population, have received one dose of vaccine while fewer than 1 million have received two.
The rollout of vaccines, which had been halted on July 9 because supplies had run out after a first phase, resumed on Aug. 16.
During the first phase, Nigeria used doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine received through COVAX. It has since received supplies of Moderna’s vaccine donated by the United States, which are being used for the second phase.
Johnson & Johnson shots purchased by Nigeria via an African Union scheme are also expected to be used.
Nigeria has recorded 187,588 cases of COVID-19 and 2,276 deaths since the start of the pandemic, according to official data, although the figures could be much higher given that only 2.7 million samples have been tested.
