The Lagos State Government announced the launch of a mass vaccination campaign to cover 4 million residents in a bid to fight the spread of the coronavirus.
The scheme was launched by Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Wednesday with the aim of vaccinating four million residents in Lagos before the end of 2021.
The programme is also titled ”Operation Count Me in 4 Million Lagosians Vaccinated Against COVID-19”, and would be overseen by the Lagos State Government in collaboration with the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA).
What the Lagos Governor is saying
Sanwo-Olu revealed there is a possibility of the fourth wave of COVID-19, during the holiday season, and urged residents of Lagos, who are 18 years and above to be fully immunised with the COVID-19 vaccine.
He added that the joint committee set up by the Lagos State Government and NPHCDA would oversee the implementation of the campaign and open vaccination sites in high traffic locations.
He said, ”There is potential for a fourth wave of COVID-19, as our borders would be opened to all people coming into Lagos in December.
”To prevent the catastrophic events we witnessed in the previous waves, the state has developed a robust vaccination drive, leveraging on both the strengths we have in the public and private sectors of our healthcare system.
”In development of our strategy and counter-measures, we prioritise the protection of human lives and keeping our economy open for business.
“To mitigate against this potential damage that will further spread existing variants of COVID-19 in the state, and accelerate efforts towards herd immunity, the need for a different strategy becomes a front burner issue.
”This is what has culminated in the campaign, tagged ‘Count Me In! 4 million Lagosians Vaccinated Against COVID-19’, to target the full vaccination of 4 million Lagos residents before the end of December 2021.
”Once achieved, this will bring the State closer to reaching our promise to vaccinate 30 per cent of our population within one year.”
He revealed that since March when Lagos started its vaccination programme, the state has successfully vaccinated 800,000 residents with the first dose of Moderna vaccine and 310,000 persons fully vaccinated with AstraZeneca vaccine.
He said that the total number of residents vaccinated with the first dose of either AstraZeneca or Moderna is 1.2 million.
He added that the state has set up COVID-19 vaccination in all our 205 public primary health centres, 14 of the state’s secondary and tertiary hospitals, and hoping that this partnership can be implemented in over 400 private health centres across seven underserved Local Government Areas in the state.
The Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, said ”The first step is to control the in-bound flight passengers and maintain adherence to all preventive measures that have been put in place, while the second step is to closely monitor the isolation of those coming from the red zone area.”
Meanwhile, the NPHCDA Executive Director, Dr. Shuaib Faisal, revealed that only 2,950,232 Nigerians had been fully vaccinated, stating that there are enough vaccines in storage to give many people the opportunity to get vaccinated.
In case you missed it
Nairametrics reported earlier that the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) had rejected the planned enforcement of Covid-19 vaccination on workers and Nigerians. This is coming at a time some state governments and stakeholders had already opposed the federal government’s compulsory vaccination.
