The Chinese Government has announced the donation of 470,000 Covid vaccines to Nigeria.
This was disclosed on Friday by the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr CUI Jianchun, as he donated the vaccines to the Nigerian Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, in Abuja, according to the News Agency of Nigeria.
The Chinese Ambassador said the gesture “was as a result of the good relationship between Nigeria and China.
He also urged against politicising issues surrounding COVID-19 or blaming China for the outbreak, and promised more collaboration between both countries in fighting the disease.
“Nigeria is a very important country to China due to its population and size. Efforts to eliminate the COVID-19 pandemic required the collaboration of all countries.
“COVID-19 is a health issue. We need cooperation. We need unity to overcome COVID-19,” Jianchun said.
Nigeria’s Health Minister praised the Chinese government for the gesture, adding that the donation was timely. The Minister cited that Nigeria had paused vaccination earlier this month due to lack of vaccines but hinted that vaccination may soon resume.
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It earlier reported that, Nigeria’s National Primary Healthcare Development Agency stated earlier this week that Nigeria has successfully utilized 3,938,945 doses of Astrazeneca vaccines across 36 States and FCT, representing 98% utilization of the 4,024,000 doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine it received from COVAX facility in March 2021.
Earlier this month, the Federal Government announced that it expects to receive about 8 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines, including donations from the United States government by the end of next month.
The NPHCDA added that Nigeria expects delivery of 3.924 million doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca shots from global vaccine-sharing scheme COVAX by the end of July or early August and an additional 3.93 million doses of either Pfizer/Biotech or Moderna, donated by the U.S. government via COVAX, in August as well
