Russia’s Ambassador to Nigeria, Alexey Shebarshin, has delivered the samples of the Russian made Covid 19 vaccine tagged Sputnik v to the Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, during a visit to the ministry in Abuja.
Also present at the event were the Minister of State for Health, Olorunnimbe Mamora; top management of the Health Ministry and other Nigerian Scientists.
This was contained in a statement signed by the ministry’s Director of Information, Media, and Public Relations, Olujimi Oyetomi.
Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, had earlier said his country approved the vaccine wich offers “sustainable immunity” against the lethal coronavirus.
The World Health Organisation had subsequently said it would review the effectiveness of the vaccine.
Ehanire on Friday said the vaccine would be “quickly referred” to the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control as well as the Nigeria Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Development, amongst other agencies, for review and possible validation.
The minister had said Nigeria was working with the WHO for the allocation of 2 billion vaccine doses as soon as they are available.
The need for a vaccine has become more urgent globally and nationally with Nigeria recording over 50,000 COVID-19 infections and over 1,000 associated fatalities, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.
Oyetomi, in the statement, said the Russian envoy said he was at the Health Ministry “to formally hand over the Russian-made Vaccine against COVID-19 to Nigeria with an aide memoir which explains the details for Nigerian teams to study and get ready for further researches, patronage and application.”
