Nigeria gets 500, 000 doses of COVID - 19 vaccine from France

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Nigeria gets 500, 000 doses of COVID - 19 vaccine from France

ABUJA, Oct 14 Reuters - Nigeria has received 501,600 doses of AstraZeneca's COVID - 19 vaccine from the French government through the COVAX vaccine share facility.

Faisal Shuaib, Head of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, said the country also received 434,400 doses of Johnson and Johnson vaccine from the African Union.

Both supplies were received last week, Shuaib said, adding that more were expected to be received through the COVAX facility and the African Union.

The COVAX facility, backed by the World Health Organization and GAVI vaccine alliance, aims to secure billions of doses for poor countries by 2021.

About 2.3% of Nigerians or 2.54 million people have been completely vaccinated as of Thursday, while 4.7% of the population have received at least one vaccination dose, Shuaib said.

With more vaccines arriving in the country, it is my fervent hope that more people will turn up so that Nigeria can quickly progress towards attaining herd immunity, Shuaib said.

From January 1, Nigerian civil servants will be required to show proof of vaccination against COVID - 19 or a negative test for the disease to gain access to their offices, a Presidential Committee has said.

Nigeria, which hasn't tested extensively for COVID -19, has recorded 208,404 confirmed infections and 2,761 deaths from the virus so far.