FG takes delivery of India’s Covishield vaccines

The Chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on Covid-19 and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha said the government has received 100,000 doses of Covishield vaccines from India.

Mr Mustapha, confirmed this on Tuesday at the national briefing by the PTF in Abuja, adding that more vaccines are coming from African Union’s Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT).

“As you are aware, Nigeria received 3.94 million doses of the Covid-19 Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine on March 2, 2021,” he said.

“These vaccines represented the first tranche of about 16 million doses allocated to Nigeria through the COVAX facility, aimed at vaccinating an initial 20 per cent of the population.

“More vaccines are also expected from the African Union’s Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT).

“We shall also be receiving about 100,000 doses of Covishield vaccines donated by the Government of India to Nigeria. This will further boost the number of Nigerians to be vaccinated by about 50,000, he said.

The vaccines were presented to the PTF by the acting Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr Velagaleti Surendra.