By Joyce Remi- Babayeju
The FederalGovernment has made the COVID-19 jab compulsory for all civil servants in all Federal Government institutions to make the workplace free of COVID-19.
Executive Director of the National Primary Health Agency, Dr. Faisal Shuaib today in Abuja at a Media Briefing on COVID-19 update made this announcement said that the Presidential Steering Committee, PSC has directed that all Federal Government employees should make a choice as to how they can contribute to towards making the work environment COVID-19 free.
He said, ” The logical option is between taking the vaccine and showing evidence of this or presenting a proof that one is COVID-19 free by showing a negative PCR test taken 72hrs prior.”
According to Shuaib this decision was jointly taken by the PSC and the Federal Ministry of Health not only to protect vulnerable people but to make the workplace safe for all citizens.
He said, “Clearly, there is loss of productivity and its impact on socio-economic development when workers are unable to come to work on a regular and consistent basis due to outbreaks of an infectious disease such as COVID-19.
The NPHCDA principal officer gave the assurance of enough vaccines said, “We have enough vaccines to cover more than this population of Federal Government employees and we are expecting even much more.
“Based on delivery forecasts from the COVAX facility and the African Union, Nigeria will have adequate vaccines to cover more that 50% of eligible populations by the end of the first quarter of 2022.”
“In order words, please do not worry about the availability of vaccines, we have the supply chain figured out.”
He noted although some unscrupulous elements would want to get the card and not the jab but disclosed that the agency is working with relevant security agencies to make examples of these individuals who may wish to buy or sell the cards by naming and shaming them.
We are also enhancing the security features of our vaccination cards in order to limit forgeries, he assured.
Furthermore the ED revealed that the agency is set to establish mass COVID-19 vaccination sites across the country in places such as Federal institutitions like universities, polytechnics, shopping malls, religious centres, sporting events, market places, etc as a way of commitment to ramp up COVID-19 vaccine uptake in the country .
He noted that the agency has commenced the process of decentralizing COVID-19 vaccination in the country to include private health care providers as a way of expanding access and increase utilization of vaccines.
He encourage all eligible Nigerians to avail themselves for vaccination.
