The Federal Government, on Tuesday, held a reception ceremony after the arrival of COVID-19 vaccine doses in the country.

The ceremony was attended by the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire; the Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu and Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Faisal Shuaib, who organised the ceremony.

Earlier, the CEO of NPHCDA , a parastatal of the Federal Ministry of Health, had said, “There is going to be a small ceremony chaired by the Chairman of the PTF on COVID-19 to receive the vaccine at the VIP Protocol section, General Aviation Terminal of Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.

“At the end of the ceremonies to mark the arrival of the vaccines. A few vials of the vaccines would be handed over to the NAFDAC team which they will analyze over a period of two days (Wednesday March 3rd and Thursday, March 4th).”

The PUNCH had reported that Nigeria received nearly four million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, shipped via the COVAX Facility, a partnership between CEPI, Gavi, UNICEF and WHO.

COVAX shipped 3.94 million doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, arrived from Mumbai to Abuja around 11.30 am on Tuesday.