Nigeria, April 1 -- Almost a month after Nigeria commenced the vaccination of its citizens against COVID-19, over 800,000 people have received the first dose of the vaccine.

As of Thursday evening, 818,865 eligible Nigerians have been vaccinated, an update by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) shows.

The Nigerian government had said it plans to vaccinate 109 million people against the COVID-19 virus over a period of two years.

Nigeria commenced COVID-19 vaccination on March 5 having received 3.94 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines through COVAX, a UN-backed effort that promises access to free vaccines for up to 20 per cent of participating countries' population. The vaccination started with healt...