… says 40,739 trained health workers on ground to administer vaccination
…to take vaccination to markets, motor parks , hard to reach areas
By Joyce Remi- Babayeju
In a bid to contain the impending third wave of COVID-19 pandemic in the country the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, NPHCDA, has announced that it would roll out the second phase of the vaccines on the 16th of August, 2021.
Executive Director of the NPHCDA, Dr Faisal Shuaib who made this know Tuesday in Abuja at the Weekly Media briefing on progress of COVID-19;Vaccination in Nigeria said that next successful vaccines rollout was due to arrival of 4,000,080 doses of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine donated by the government of the United States has also been approved by NAFDAC for local use.
Shuaib said that in addition 176,000 doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccines is expected Wednesday August 11th. These 176,000 doses as you are aware, are coming out of the 29,850,000 doses that the Federal Government procured from the AFREXIM Bank through the African Union, he explained.
“This August Nigeria would get 588,800 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from the COVAX Facility, the first batch of 3.9 million doses to complement the ones on ground and for those waiting to get their second dose and also those wishing to receive their first dose of the vaccine.”
“AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines are very effective against the Delta variant as cases are beginning to increase in states like Lagos and Akwa Ibom.”
He said that the over 40,000 trained health workers across the national, state and ward levels to be engaged on the second phase strategic vaccine rollout plan will focus on improving the delivery , communication, , data management , management of vaccines and logistics.
A total of 3364 teams will be used
2690 teams manning the fixed posts and 673 manning temporary fixed posts which would go from settlement to settlements especially across areas where people will congregate for example the houses of the traditional leaders, the markets and motor parks.
The Johnson and Johnson brand requires a single dose for full protection against virus and would be administered in populations in hard to reach areas such as riverine areas and deserts areas.
The NPHCDA boss who gave assurance that the different brands of vaccines approved by NAFDAC provide adequate protection against the COVID-19 disease said that presently the agency in collaboration with NAFDAC have adopted tracking and tracing monitoring stock strategy across the national and subnational level to ensure vaccines accountability.
According to the NPHCDA boss the agency would also be adopting “the whole family approach” to integrate the COVID-19 vaccination with other basic PHC services such as childhood vaccination, screening for hypertension, diabetes, malnutrition amid sensitizing residents on improve on personal hygiene, water and environmental sanitation in view of the large number of cases of cholera bedeviling the country.
Even as we increase the vaccination coverage across Nigeria, Let us continue to observe the non-pharmaceutical measures such as wearing of facemask, physical distancing, and hand hygiene, he admonished Nigerians.
Meanwhile the World Health Organization, WHO, Country Representative to Nigeria, Dr. Walter Kazidi Mulombo said that arrival of the second batch of 4 million doses of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine donated the United States Government js an important step in the fight against COVID-19 as the country intensify efforts to battle the current third wave of infections.
Molumbo who said that the third wave of the virus in Africa is not over called on Nigeria double prevention measures to build on the fragile gains achieved amid the country’s low vaccination rate, adding that less than 2% of the entire population is fully vaccinated.
Therefore, we must be mindful of discontinuing public health and social measures such as maintaining physical distance, avoiding crowded places and always observing hand hygiene. Relaxing them too early could see us losing some of the gains that vaccines have enabled us to make.
To boost the uptake of vaccines, government, traditional and religious institutions as well as community influencers need to scale up operations, investments on operational costs and step up sensitization efforts to address vaccine hesitancy, he said.
