UPDATE 2-First COVID-19 vaccines arrive in Nigeria

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By Abraham Achirga
ABUJA, March 2 (Reuters) - Nigeria received its first
COVID-19 vaccines on Tuesday to kick off an inoculation
programme in Africa's most populous nation, delivered under the
international COVAX scheme.
The West African nation of 200 million people took delivery
of 3.92 million doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca AZN.L vaccine.
Nigeria is the third West African country to receive COVAX
shots, after Ghana and Ivory Coast, which have both started
vaccination campaigns.
Dozens of Nigerian officials, wearing yellow high-visibility
jackets and facemasks, met the flight delivering the vaccines on
the airport tarmac in Abuja.
"The successful development of vaccines and the accelerated
process for emergency authorisation has brought hope to humanity
all over the world," said Boss Mustapha, chairman of Nigeria's
presidential task force on COVID-19.
The government aims to start by vaccinating frontline
healthcare workers, the highest-priority recipients, in Abuja on
March 5, followed by strategic leaders on March 8.
Mustapha said the government expected to receive 84 million
doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine from COVAX this year,
enough to inoculate 20% of the population.
COVAX, led by the vaccine alliance Gavi, and the World
Health Organization (WHO), with UNICEF as an implementing
partner, aims to deliver nearly 2 billion doses worldwide by the
end of 2021.
Peter Hawkins, the Nigeria country representative for
UNICEF, said Nigeria's extensive experience in combatting
infectious diseases, most recently the eradication of wild
polio, would facilitate the rollout of COVID-19 doses.
"We will use the polio network to be able to ensure that
people in the most extreme areas are reached as quickly as
possible," Hawkins said.
Ghana and Ivory Coast have begun administering COVAX doses,
and Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo and his wife took them in
an effort to boost public confidence. Officials have also expressed concern with vaccine
scepticism in Nigeria, but food scientist Chinedu Mokeke said
people should take the shots and "be happy and move on".