The Canadian government has donated 2,649,600 doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines to Nigeria.
This was as the Federal Government said it plans to vaccinate 70 per cent of eligible Nigerians with COVID-19 vaccines by the end of this year.
Executive Director of National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Faisal Shuaib, disclosed this when he received the vaccines in Abuja, yesterday.
He said government has designed a performance-based incentive to improve uptake of COVID-19 vaccines and other primary health care (PHC) services in states and communities, noting that the donation is critical to helping Nigeria ramp up its vaccination rollout.
Shuaib said as at yesterday, 40,700,979 eligible persons had received the first dose while 28,659,698 others have been fully vaccinated. He said this represents 25.6 per cent of the eligible population. Also, 2,666,830 of the fully vaccinated persons had received booster doses.
He said: “We are pretty sure that with the kind of support we have received from the Canadian government today, and the continued cooperation of our partners and stakeholders, we will, sooner than expected, be able to put COVID-19 behind us in Nigeria.”
In his brief remarks, the Canadian High Commissioner to Nigeria, James Christoff, said the donation is aimed at supporting rollout of vaccination in Nigeria.
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He added that responding to the need created by the pandemic around the world remains a priority of the Canadian government.
He also commended efforts of the Nigerian government in the fight against COVID-19.
