Abuja (AFP)

Nigeria, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in turn received their first doses of Covid-19 vaccines in Africa on Tuesday, funded by the Covax device created by the World Health Organization (WHO) for the benefit of most deprived countries.

A flight carrying 3.94 million doses of British AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine arrived shortly before noon at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, the capital of Africa's most populous country with 200 million people.

This is the first batch of 16 million doses of British AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine due to arrive in Nigeria in the coming months, where caregivers and at-risk professions will be the first vaccinated, as of Friday, the authorities have assured.

After Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire, on February 24 and 26, Nigeria is the third African country to receive vaccines funded by the Covax device.

On Tuesday, a plane also landed 624,000 doses of Covax-funded AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine in Luanda, allowing Angola to immediately begin vaccinating health workers.

On the same day, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) also received first doses from the Covax device on Tuesday.

In Nigeria, "vaccinations are due to start on Friday with occupations at risk," Nigerian presidential spokesman Garba Shehu told AFP, adding that the president and vice president would also receive an injection on Saturday.

OM boss Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus welcomed the arrival of vaccines in Nigeria: "we must act together to provide vaccines to all countries in the first 100 days of 2021", one of Covax's announced goals, the other being to provide two billion doses by the end of the year.

Some 237 million Astrazeneca-Oxford doses, manufactured in South Korea and by the Serum Institute of India will be delivered by the end of May to 142 countries thanks to an unprecedented logistics operation.

To this will be added 1.2 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which requires a cold chain at very low temperatures.

- "huge work" -

Covax, a system set up to try to ensure equitable access to vaccines around the world, began distribution only last week, as vaccination campaigns in many wealthy countries, which have procured their own doses, have started at the end of December.

"It's a great day for Nigeria," said the director of the national agency in charge of immunization programs, Dr Faisal Shuaib, on Tuesday.

"We have worked hard to be ready to administer the vaccine to health workers."

“There will remain enormous work to protect the population from Covid-19,” he added in a statement.

Nigerian government secretary general Boss Mustapha urged traditional and religious leaders, civil society organizations and the media to spread the message that vaccination is necessary.

Nigeria wants to vaccinate at least 70% of Nigerians over the age of 18 within the next two years, but this figure seems very ambitious given the immense security and logistical challenges in this huge, densely populated country with difficult weather conditions and where the roads are difficult to pass.

Similar obstacles exist in many countries on the continent that are poor in infrastructure or face serious security challenges.

"Cargo planes are waiting to transport the vaccines to the (36) states that make up Nigeria," said Dr Shuaib.

Authorities have set up an online self-registration portal to try to facilitate vaccinations.

Relatively spared so far by the pandemic, Africa is facing a second wave of Covid-19.

The continent had 104,031 deaths on Tuesday for 3,904,996 recorded cases.

Nigeria for its part recorded 156,017 cases on Tuesday, including 1,915 deaths.

But these figures are underestimated, the number of tests carried out being low.

© 2021 AFP