Nigeria received four million doses of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine from the United States on Sunday as its major plans to step up efforts to battle the third wave of infections.
According to reports, the doses, which came on two planes, were received by officials from the UN children agency UNICEF on behalf of Nigeria at the airport in the capital Abuja.
It was the second batch of vaccines to arrive in Africa’s most populous nation after four million doses were delivered in March under the Covax scheme.
Covax was set up to ensure the equitable distribution of vaccines, particularly to low-income countries, and has already delivered more than 80 million doses to 129 territories.
Nigeria, which is home to some 210 million people, used the four million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine it received in March to start its nationwide inoculation program.
Experts worry that the highly contagious Delta variant could pose another setback to vaccine distribution, if wealthier countries begin requiring booster shots for fully-vaccinated people, it could slow shipments of urgently needed doses to developing nations.
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