Nigeria on Sunday received a donation of four million doses of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine from the United States as it steps up its efforts to fight the third wave of infections.
The doses, delivered in two planes, were received by UNICEF officials on behalf of Nigeria at the Abuja airport.
In March, four million doses of vaccine were delivered under the Covax program to Africa’s most populous nation.
Last month, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said it detected the Delta variant, putting officials on alert for the third wave of infections in the country.
On Wednesday, the U.S. government pledged to ship nearly 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Nigeria and South Africa.
Now, four million doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine will go to Nigeria and 5.66 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine to South Africa.
The South Africa shipment is the single largest sent by the United States since it began sending vaccine shots overseas, one of the officials said.
The latest shipments bring the total number of U.S. vaccine donations to Africa to 16.4 million.