By As the cases of COVID-19 in the country continues to surge, the Federal Government has said it is currently making efforts and hopeful to get the coronavirus vaccines to the country by the end of February.
This was according to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama.
The minister, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), said the country was expecting vaccines from the People’s Republic of China, a strategic partner of Nigeria and from other countries.
He said: “What we are engaging with China is in the area of vaccines for COVID-19, so we are also looking to import, to acquire significant vaccines from China and other partners too.
“They have cooperated with us with regards to personal protective equipment and other things in our COVID response.
“So we are now at the stage of the vaccine and we are hoping that we can get some support from them in that area.”
Onyeama further explained that the nation was still exploring other means of acquiring COVID-19 vaccines, adding that Nigeria is also on the framework of the African Union to collectively negotiate for the vaccines as a continent.
“The African Union has made some headway, more than 400 million (doses) is what has been agreed to. So we were hoping that at the end of February we would have started receiving the vaccines.
“But I think almost certainly by the middle of February we should have started receiving,” he said.
