Photos of large plastic-wrapped bundles being offloaded from a plane are of COVID-19 vaccines China has sent to Nigeria, to be distributed for free.
“The vaccine has just arrived Nigeria airport few hours ago from China,” says a Facebook post from 7 April 2020., The post includes four photos of large plastic-wrapped bundles being offloaded from a plane. The bundles have “China Aid” written on them., The post claims the bundles include Covid-19 vaccines that will be distributed to Nigerians for free., “Please send this information to our lovely ones at home advise them to stay away from this deadly materials,” the post says., Has the Chinese government sent Covid-19 vaccines to Nigeria? We checked., A Google reverse image search reveals that the photos were taken at the Kotoka International Airport in Accra, Ghana on 6 April for China’s Xinhua News Agency., They appear in a Xinhua article that says the bundles contain medical supplies sent from the Chinese government to 18 African countries, including Ghana and Nigeria., According to the Chinese embassy in Ghana, the Chinese government donated medical personal protective equipment, such as N95 face masks, medical protective suits, goggles, gloves and equipment like exergen temporal artery thermometers., “During this tough time, medical items are in short supply because of great demand. Like masks and medical use protective suits, they are not available in the market,” Chinese ambassador Shi Ting Wang said in a handover address., The supplies did not include vaccines., According to the World Health Organization, there is currently no vaccine to prevent Covid-19, although clinical trials are underway in a number of different countries., The US, UK, and China have announced that they have begun the first phase in clinical trials for a Covid-19 vaccine. – Naledi Mashishi, , "A fact-checker has rated your Facebook or Instagram post as “false”. What should you do? First, dont delete!", Click on our guide for the steps you should follow., Publishers guide, Africa Check is a partner in Facebook’s third-party fact-checking programme to help stop the spread of false information on social media., The content we rate as “false” will be downgraded on Facebook and Instagram. This means fewer people will see it., You can also help identify false information on Facebook. This guide explains how., Africa Check is working with the CoronaVirusFacts/DatosCoronaVirus Alliance, a coalition of more than 100 fact-checkers fighting misinformation about the Covid-19 pandemic., Learn more about the alliance here., , © Copyright Africa Check 2020. Read our republishing guidelines.\xa0You may reproduce this piece or content from it for the purpose of reporting and/or discussing news and current events. This is subject to: Crediting Africa Check in the byline, keeping all hyperlinks to the sources used and adding this sentence at the end of your publication: “This report was written by Africa Check, a non-partisan fact-checking organisation. View the original piece on their website", with a link back to this page., We depend on voluntary donations to run this site. Please help us to keep public figures accountable by supporting the project., Find out more, For democracy to function, public figures need to be held to account for what they say. The claims they make need to be checked, openly and impartially. Africa Check is an independent, non-partisan organisation which assesses claims made in the public arena using journalistic skills and evidence drawn from the latest online tools, readers, public sources and experts, sorting fact from fiction and publishing the results., , Get a weekly dose of facts, straight to your inbox.
No, China has not sent Covid-19 vaccines to Nigeria | Africa Check