Abel Leonard, Lafia
Front line health workers of the Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital, (DASH)Lafia were the first to receive the Covid-19 vaccination as the official launch of the State wide exercise took place today in the hospital.
Commissioner for Health, Pharmacist Ahmed Baba Yahaya, who declared the commencement of the vaccination exercise open said it was necessary to start with the front line health workers because of the risks they have been facing in the fight against Covid-19, adding that with vaccination the end of Covid-19 has come.
He encouraged all eligible citizens of Nasarawa State to come out and take the vaccine.
Also speaking at the event, Chairman, Nasarawa State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Hadis Mohammed said the state has received over 50,000 doses of the vaccine and over a hundred health workers would be vaccinated in DASH today and the exercise will continue all over the state.
He however, urged everyone who is interested in taking the vaccine to do the e-registration and then visit the nearest Primary Health Care Center to get the vaccine.
Director, Public Health, Ministry of Health, Dr. Ibrahim Alhasan, who was the first to take the vaccine, said he did so in order to show the people of Nasarawa State that the vaccine is safe, while promising to ensure all eligible persons get vaccinated.
He however said the focus would first be on the health workers, those with co-morbidities and those above fifty years of age, also advising that pregnant women should not take the vaccine for now.
Expressing his happiness with the exercise, the Chief Medical Director of DASH, Dr. Ikrama Hassan said, “this is what we have been waiting for for the past one year and thank God at last it is here”. He said he was grateful to the government for making DASH the first place to administer the vaccine and that has boosted the morals of the health workers to Put in more efforts in combating the disease.
