Nigeria is set to receive 57 million doeses of Covid-19 vaccine over the next few months, the authorities say.
They have asked for a four-fold increase on their previous request for 10 million doses from the African Union.
“We have applied for 41 million doses of a combination of Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines,” Faisal Shuaib, who heads the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, told the Reuters news agency.
According to the BBC, an additional 16 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine are expected in February from the World Health Organisation-backed Covax programme.
As Nigeria fights a second wave of Covid-19, officials are looking to multiple sources to secure more vaccines to inoculate its enormous population.
During a press conference in the capital, Abuja on Monday, the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, also said the country’s drug agency was looking into vaccines from Russia and India.
So far Nigeria, with a population of around 186 million, has officially recorded over 130,000 cases of Covid-19, including 1,600 deaths.
