Spain has donated 4.4 million doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine to Nigeria.
The Spanish Embassy disclosed this in a statement titled: “No one will be safe until we are all safe,” issued in Abuja on Wednesday.
The action, according to the embassy, was in line with the Spanish government’s unconditional defence of fair, equitable, and universal access to vaccines against COVID-19.
The vaccine was handed over to the Chief Executive of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Faisal Shuaib, by the Spanish Ambassador to Nigeria, Juan Sell, in Abuja.
It added that the donation made Spain the third largest donor of COVID-19 vaccines to Nigeria and the seventh-largest in the world with 70 million doses delivered so far.
The statement read: “Spain is fully committed to multilateral efforts.
“Consequently, this donation, and more than 90 per cent of Spanish donations, has been made through the COVAX mechanism.
“Additionally, this donation constitutes one more action of Team Europe” in Nigeria, integrated by the European Union and its member states.
“Altogether, the EU and EU countries have donated 30 million vaccines to Nigeria so far.”
In his remark, Sell stressed the importance of reaching every Nigerian citizen and every remote corner of the world if the pandemic were to be contained.
He said: “We have to strengthen primary health systems and we must improve global mechanisms for technology transfer to decentralise the production of health products in all regions, particularly in Africa.
“In that sense, the President of the Government of Spain announced at the recent Global Summit against COVID-19 that Spain will donate 300 million dollars for an additional 30 million COVID-19 vaccines and for the strengthening of public health systems.
“This will be done through projects related to COVID-19, which will be implemented by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation.
“Spain has also joined the World Health Organisation’s COVID-19 Technology Access Group and is part of the Team Europe initiative on manufacturing and access to vaccines that the Ambassador of the EU to Nigeria presented.”
