By Dauda R Pam Maiduguri
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)is set vaccinate 143,387 health workers in the front line against corona-virus (COVID-19) which has claimed several lives in Borno state.
The UNICEF whose target was the front line health workers, were mostly drawn from insurgency affected states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe in the northeast.
The Immunization Officer, Mohammed Ibrahim, disclosed this Wednesday in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital, stressing that, the exercise would be implemented under the first phase of the vaccination drive of UNICEF in insurgency affected states.
According UNICEF, the front line health worker are most risky as they continually interact with COVID-19 infected persons.
“As part of Phase 1, Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states are included in the vaccine launch.
“A total of 143,387 health workers from these states are expected to be vaccinated”.
The UNICEF information officer further disclosed that the vaccination exercise is to commence today (Wednesday) in the six states of the region.
A breakdown of the COVID-19 vaccination exercise indicated that Borno state has the highest number of health workers, with 55,255, while Yobe state has 33,997,scheduled to be vaccinated this week under the first phase.
The phase II vaccination would target the remaining health workers and those aged 50 years and above.
In the same vein, “The phase III would target those with co-morbidities under 50-year old residents,” and also explained that phase IV would target the population of people at risk with a high burden of disease.
UNICEF, he said, would worked with the Borno State Government to facilitate the training of more health workers, to improve the capacity of the resource persons in community engagement and demand creations and vaccine management.
