The Executive Director of National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) Dr Faisal Shuaib has stressed that in order for Nigeria to attain social and economic recovery, there is the need to ramp up COVID-19 vaccinations across the country.
The NPHCDA boss made this known at the National flag off of COVID-19 mass vaccination campaign on Friday, in Abuja.
While expressing dissatisfaction at the total number of people vaccinated so far, Shuaib maintained that out of the six million Nigerians thus vaccinated, no one has died as a result of taking the jab.
He added that mass vaccination is one of the strategic approaches that would be deployed to rapidly increase the number of fully vaccinated eligible populations in Nigeria.
He said: “As of this morning, Friday November 19, 2021, the total number of eligible persons who have received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine in Nigeria is 5,989,480 which represents only 5.4% of our eligible population. A total of 3,341,094 have received their second dose and are fully vaccinated and this represents only 3% of our eligible.
“As we congratulate Nigerians who have been vaccinated and thus ensured their protection against the severe effects of COVID-19, we are concerned about Nigerians that have refused to come out for the vaccination exercise especially as the Federal Government is fulfilling its commitment to providing the COVID-19 vaccines free of charge to all Nigerians.
“Almost six million Nigerians have received the COVID-19 vaccine, and that six million Nigerians cannot be wrong. It is important to add today that none of the six million Nigerians have died as a result of COVID-19 vaccination. What this is telling us is that all the conspiracy theories are false and have just been crafted to distract us and undermine the global effort to protect people against COVID-19 outbreak.
“We are concerned about Nigerians that have refused to come out for the vaccination exercise especially as the Federal Government is fulfilling its commitment to providing the COVID-19 vaccines free of charge to all Nigerians.
“Field reports, scientific information and lessons learnt from phases 1 and 2 implementation suggest that we need to ramp up vaccination in order to fast track Nigeria’s social and economic recovery. Mass vaccination is one of our strategic approaches to rapidly increase the number of fully vaccinated eligible populations in Nigeria”.
NPHCDA also adopted a national strategy, codenamed S.C.A.L.E.S, which stands for Service Delivery, Communication, Accountability, Logistics, EMID (Electronic Management Of Immunization Data) to intensify Covid-19 vaccination.
COVID-19 Vaccine
“A national strategy known as the S.C.A.L.E.S for intensification of COVID-19 vaccination has been developed for adaptation by state health teams across the country. SCALES stands for Service delivery, Communication, Accountability, Logistics, Emid (Electronic Management of Immunization Data) and Supervision.
“Mass vaccination is an integral component of our service delivery strategy, which takes COVID-19 vaccination beyond primary Healthcare (PHC) Centers. What this simply means is that, in addition to PHC centers, we are creating vaccination sites in secondary health care facilities (hospitals, University health Center/Clinics), pharmacy Stores, Mosques, Churches, Corporate offices, private health care facilities (private hospitals/clinics), etc.
“We believe that wherever you may be in this country, you will find a vaccination site close to you. This is to provide all Nigerians easier access to the COVID-19 vaccine. We are also creating temporary vaccination posts and leveraging fixed and outreach routine immunization sessions” Shuaib added.
Also Speaking, Secretary to Government of the Federation and Chairman Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19, Mr. Boss Mustapha, said Nigeria was far from achieving the national target of vaccinating 70 percent of eligible target population to move Nigeria towards attaining herd immunity by 2022.
