Spain: 4,400,000 Doses Of COVID-19 Vaccines Donated To Nigeria
On Tuesday, the Spanish government donated 4,400,000 doses of the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine to Nigeria. Mr. Juan Ignatio Sell, the ambassador of Spain to Nigeria, said that this was the largest COVID-19 donation given to any African country.
Mr. Sell had made this known during the handing over of the vaccines at the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) head office in Abuja. According to him, the grant demonstrated his country’s dedication to the assistance of underdeveloped countries in increasing the rates of COVID-19 vaccination.
“In 2020, the world was faced with the challenge to develop an effective vaccine. In 2021, the challenges evolved to the production and distribution of the vaccines. Today in 2022, we need to put these vaccines within people’s reach. As we want to leave the acute phase of the pandemic behind, we dare not linger and there are lessons to be learnt. One of them is the need to improve global mechanisms for technology transfer to decentralise the production of health products in all regions, Africa in particular. And that is why Spain has joined the WHO Technology Access Group.
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“And that is also why the EU has launched a Team Europe Initiative on manufacturing and access to vaccines, medicines and health technologies in Africa, with 1 billion euros, and that will benefit Nigeria. And we need to protect, safeguard and invest in health and health workers, and this is the effort line that Spain is co-leading in the framework of the Global Action Plan, and we have committed 300 million euros for further donations and projects to strengthen public health systems,” he advised.
As he received the donation on the behalf of the Nigerian government, Dr. Faisal Shuaib, the Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), thanked the Spanish government for their donation, and stated that the gesture came at a time when the country most needed it. He used the opportunity to call upon eligible Nigerians who have yet to be vaccinated to do so.
According to Dr. Shuaib, if we keep up with the vaccination, the likely scenario is that even though the virus continues to evolve, the severity of the disease will reduce over time as the immunity increases due to vaccination.
The EU ambassador to Nigeria, WHO country representatives and UNICEF country representatives commended Nigeria on its efforts to vaccinate all eligible citizens.
