(Adds details, background)ADDIS ABABA, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Ethiopia has secured nine million doses of COVID-19 vaccines up until April and hopes to inoculate at least a fifth of its 110 million people by the end of the year, the health minister said on Tuesday. "For now up to April we have been allocated close to nine million doses," Lia Tadesse said. African countries are trying to obtain COVID-19 vaccine supplies for their 1.3 billion people even as rich nations elsewhere in the world race ahead with mass immunisation campaigns. On Tuesday, Lia did not specify which vaccines Ethiopia will be receiving through COVAX. Earlier this month, COVAX said it had allocated at least 330 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines for poorer countries and will aim to deliver these and many millions more in the first half of 2021. includes 240 million doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine made by the Serum Institute of India, an additional 96 million doses of the same shot made by AstraZeneca , plus 1.2 million doses of Pfizer (NYSE: ) PFE.N -BioNTech'S COVID-19 vaccine.

Source: Ethiopian News February 09, 2021 11:48 UTC