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Africa's most populous country unveiled its plans this week to vaccinate half of its target population by the end of January 2022.
According to Reuters, Nigeria is set to launch a massive vaccination campaign on Friday (November 19) with the goal of getting at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine into the arms of roughly 55.5 million people in the next 75 days. The West African nation is ultimately looking to get 111 million people fully vaccinated against the virus to reach herd immunity.
Current data shows Nigeria has vaccinated just 2.9% of eligible people so far, but plans to rev up efforts through a well-stocked pipeline and mass vaccination sites located at university campuses, stadiums, health facilities, shopping malls, and more.
Boss Mustapha, head of the presidential COVID-19 committee, told Reuters the government "has enough vaccines in the pipeline to vaccinate about 50% of the target population by the end of January 2022."
Additionally, Mustapha said the nation is looking to also supply booster shots "so as to build a healthy level of antibodies."
Last month, Nigeria secured 5 million AstraZeneca shots from the COVAX global-sharing facility through purchase and donations, Faisal Shuaib, executive director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, told Reuters.
The country also has pledges of 11.99 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 12.2 million of the Moderna vaccine, Shuaib said, adding that the country had also purchased almost 40 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
News of the mass vaccination effort comes after advocates across the globe warned against vaccination inequality and the potential danger of not getting as many people vaccinated as possible.