The UK Government on Tuesday said that the Global Vaccine Alliance
(GAVI) had announced that Nigeria would be one of the first countries to
receive 16 million free doses of COVID-19 vaccines through the COVAX
Global Vaccines Facility.
The British High Commission Office in a statement made available to the
News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) said that the free doses would be received
in the first half of this year.
It said that Gavi had shared the first forecasts of countries who would
receive COVID-19 vaccines through COVAX’s Advance Market Commitment
(AMC).
According to the Commission, COVAX has allocated over 330 million doses
for low and lower middle-income countries, including Nigeria.
“As one of the 92 ODA-eligible countries participating in the COVAX AMC
initiative, Nigeria will benefit from this arrangement and access free
vaccines to cover at least 20 per cent of its population, and the UK is
playing a supportive role in ensuring an effective and equitable
introduction of COVID-19 vaccines, “it said.
The commission said COVID-19 is a global pandemic that needed a global
solution.
It said that the UK was at the forefront of tackling COVID-19
internationally and, so far had pledged up to 1.3 billion pounds from
UK aid to end the coronavirus pandemic as quickly as possible.
It added that the aid would be used in championing access to vaccines
for all countries, particularly the world’s poorest.
The commission noted that UK was not doing this alone, adding that it
was a collective effort with other international partners.
It said that in Nigeria, the UK is supporting an effective roll out of
the vaccines through engagement and technical assistance to the Ministry
of Health and other relevant stakeholders.
“COVAX is a global initiative to support the development, manufacture,
and fair distribution of COVID-19 vaccines for up to one billion people
by the end of 2021.
“COVAX is an international alliance co-led by Gavi, the Coalition for
Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the World Health
Organization, with participation from over 180 countries.
“The UK is one of the largest donors to the COVAX facility and has
committed 548 million pounds to the AMC, a scheme that leverages the
scale assured by the participation of higher-income economies so that
the lower-income countries are able to participate and access COVID-19
vaccines, “it said.
The commission also noted that UK was also one of the largest donors to
Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which has spent the past two decades
expanding and updating cold-chain infrastructure and strengthening
routine immunisation in lower-income countries.
It said the UK was a member of the Technical Working Group (TWG) for the
roll-out of the National Deployment and Vaccines Plan (NDVP), led by the
National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), and member of
the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 since it was established by
President Muhammadu Buhari on March 9, 2020.
The British High Commissioner, Catriona Laing, said: “This news on the
COVAX global COVID-19 vaccine roll out brings us one step closer to
delivering vaccines to millions of Nigerians.
“I am pleased that Nigeria will get millions of these free doses by the
end of 2021.
“The UK is playing a global role in promoting an effective roll out,
including as one of the largest COVAX donors and through our engagement
with the Nigerian-led response, “Laing said. (NAN)