Nigeria receives 4M COVID-19 vaccine doses from US: Official

By Olarewaju Kola

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AA) - Nigeria received four million doses of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine donated by the US, officials have announced.

Faisal Shuiab, head of the country's Primary Health Care Development Agency (PHDA), said late on Monday that the doses arrived in the country on the previous day.

"These four million doses of Moderna were donated by the US government and distribution to all states will soon start," Shuaib said in the capital Abuja, inspecting the shipment alongside other health officials.

He said the new doses could be administered with AstraZeneca's vaccine.

Nigeria recorded 32 new confined cases of the Delta coronavirus variant pushing total confirmed cases at 174,315, the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said in an update.

NCDC's Director Chikwe Ihekweazu attributed the rising trend in daily cases to the increasing movement of people, especially in the southern Akwa Ibom State, where infection numbers had been very low in the first and second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.