The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), yesterday, said Nigeria and 31 other African and Latin American nations hit by the virus would receive $39 million emergency fund for the development of vaccine cold chains.
In a statement in Akure, UNICEF’s Communications, Advocacy, Media & External Relations Officer, Safiya Akau, acknowledged that the grant was from the Japanese government.
The Officer in Charge, UNICEF Nigeria, Rushnan Murtaza, further confirmed: “The support from the government of Japan complements the work of the COVAX facility, an international vaccine procurement mechanism, working to ensure that people in all countries have quick and equitable access to vaccines.
“With this fund, UNICEF will work with the government to provide cold chain equipment in priority storage sites based on gap analyses, to improve storage capacity for vaccines and facilitate monitoring of vaccine potency.
“This has a far-reaching impact on the overall goal of the COVID-19 prevention strategy in the country through vaccination, as well as the entire immunisation programme for child survival.”
He continued: “A walk-in freezer room will be installed in each of the selected six states. This includes solar vaccine refrigerators to be installed in 175 wards that have a gap in vaccine storage capacity.
“Temperature monitoring devices will be installed across 18 states’ cold stores and technical assistance will be provided to carry out the set up and maintenance of the equipment and devices. These supplies will ensure the quality of the vaccines.”
