The UK Government on Tuesday said that\u00a0 the Global Vaccine Alliance
\n(GAVI) had announced that Nigeria would be one of the first countries to
\nreceive 16 million free doses of COVID-19 vaccines through the COVAX
\nGlobal Vaccines Facility.<\/p>\n
The British High Commission Office in a statement made available to the
\nNews Agency of Nigeria(NAN) said that the free doses would be received
\nin the first half of this year.<\/p>\n
It said that Gavi had shared the first forecasts of countries who would
\nreceive COVID-19 vaccines through COVAX\u2019s Advance Market Commitment
\n(AMC).<\/p>\n
According to the Commission, COVAX has allocated over 330 million doses
\nfor low and lower middle-income countries, including Nigeria.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs one of the 92 ODA-eligible countries participating in the COVAX AMC
\ninitiative, Nigeria will benefit from this arrangement and access free
\nvaccines to cover at least 20 per cent of its population, and the UK is
\nplaying a supportive role in ensuring an effective and equitable
\nintroduction of COVID-19 vaccines, \u201cit said.<\/p>\n
The commission said COVID-19 is a global pandemic that needed a global
\nsolution.<\/p>\n
It said that the UK was at the forefront of tackling COVID-19
\ninternationally and, so far\u00a0 had pledged up to 1.3 billion pounds from
\nUK aid to end the coronavirus pandemic as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n
It added that the aid would be used in\u00a0 championing access to vaccines
\nfor all countries, particularly\u00a0 the world\u2019s poorest.<\/p>\n
The commission noted that UK was not doing this alone, adding that it
\nwas a collective effort with other international partners.<\/p>\n
It said that in Nigeria, the UK is supporting an effective roll out of
\nthe vaccines through engagement and technical assistance to the Ministry
\nof Health and\u00a0 other relevant stakeholders.<\/p>\n
\u201cCOVAX is a global initiative to support the development, manufacture,
\nand fair distribution of COVID-19 vaccines for up to one billion people
\nby the end of 2021.<\/p>\n
\u201cCOVAX is an international alliance co-led by Gavi, the Coalition for
\nEpidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the World Health
\nOrganization, with participation from over 180 countries.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe UK is one of the largest donors to the COVAX facility and has
\ncommitted 548 million pounds to the AMC, a scheme that leverages the
\nscale assured by the participation of higher-income economies so that
\nthe lower-income countries are able to participate and access COVID-19
\nvaccines, \u201cit said.<\/p>\n
The commission also noted that UK was also one of the largest donors to
\nGavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which has spent the past two decades
\nexpanding and updating cold-chain infrastructure and strengthening
\nroutine immunisation in lower-income countries.<\/p>\n
It said the UK was a member of the Technical Working Group (TWG) for the
\nroll-out of the National Deployment and Vaccines Plan (NDVP), led by the
\nNational Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), and member of
\nthe Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 since it was established by
\nPresident Muhammadu Buhari on March 9, 2020.<\/p>\n
The British High Commissioner, Catriona Laing, said: \u201cThis news on the
\nCOVAX global COVID-19 vaccine roll out brings us one step closer to
\ndelivering vaccines to millions of Nigerians.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am pleased that Nigeria will get millions of these free doses by the
\nend of 2021.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe UK is playing a global role in promoting an effective roll out,
\nincluding as one of the largest COVAX donors and through our engagement
\nwith the Nigerian-led response, \u201cLaing said. (NAN)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The UK Government on Tuesday said that\u00a0 the Global Vaccine Alliance (GAVI) had announced that Nigeria would be one of the first countries to receive 16 million free doses of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":78308,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other-news"],"yoast_head":"\n