Canada donates Covid-19 doses to Nigeria, Kenya, Niger through COVAX

September 02, 2021: Nigeria, Kenya, and Niger will receive the first Canadian-donated doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, as part of an overall Canadian pledge of over 40 million doses to COVAX.

The first shipments are arriving today, with Nigeria (801,600), Kenya (459,300) and Niger (100,800) doses. This comes alongside a pledge of CAD 440 million to the COVAX Advance Market Commitment for procurement of vaccines and CAD 75 million for readiness and delivery by the government of Canada, making Canada one of the largest donors to COVAX. An additional CAD 30 million was reallocated from the sunsetting Pneumococcal Advance Market Commitment in 2020 to help launch the COVAX AMC.

Since its inception, Canada has contributed CAD 1.3 billion to the Access to Covid-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, of which COVAX is the vaccine pillar.

“As one of our strongest supporters, Canada has pledged over CAD 500 million to the COVAX Advance Market Commitment and will donate over 40 million vaccine doses,” said Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. “We are delighted to see Canadian doses reach people who need them the most, and this underlines Canada’s commitment to leave no-one behind and get vaccines in arms. We know that Canada is committed to helping everyone, everywhere recover from the pandemic, and to strengthening health systems.”

Gavi and COVAX partners are working with governments to overcome legal and logistical hurdles to turn pledges totalling over 600 million doses into deliveries, to ensure that doses can reach countries quickly in the weeks and months to come. Over 100 million donated doses have already been delivered.