ANKARA 

Nigeria is in talks with China to procure COVID-19 vaccines, the country's foreign minister said on Tuesday.

Geoffery Onyeama was talking to media in the capital Abuja following a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, who is on a working visit to African countries.

“We are engaging with China to help us access COVID-19 vaccines," The Guardian Nigeria newspaper quoted him as saying.

Onyeama said China was of immense assistance to Nigeria at the advent of the pandemic, noting that the donation of PPE helped the nation fight COVID-19.

Last month, Isaac Adewole, the country's health minister, said Nigeria expects to receive its first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine in January.

He said that while a committee was in place to handle vaccines, the government was also working with the COVAX Facility, which is backed by the World Health Organization, to procure doses.

In November, John Nkengasong, the director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said immunization in Africa may not begin until the second quarter of 2021.

Nigeria had 91,315 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and 1,318 related deaths.