..15,000 Residents Already Vaccinated, As WHO Rates State High
By Wole Adedeji, Ilorin
A mass COVID-19 vaccination of residents against the virus by the government has kicked off in Kwara State.
The vaccination campaign was said to signal government’s renewed commitment to protect the people against the effects of the deadly virus.
Deputy Governor of the state, Mr Kayode Alabi, who supervised the flagg-off in Ilorin, the state capital, said, “As the scope of the COVID-19 mass vaccination expands throughout the state, I want to encourage all and sundry to ensure protection against COVID-19 by getting themselves vaccinated.”
He counselled and assured the people that the caccines are safe saying, “The vaccines have been adjudged to be safe and devoid of negative adverse effects.
“Our administration has taken bold steps right from the early days of the pandemic by taking proactive steps such as building a standard treatment centre and provision of conducive and safe work environment to the crop of well-trained health workers in different required specialties, who provide services to COVID-19 patients admitted into the treatment centre.”
Alabi added that the “COVID-19 pandemic has devastated the world economy and it remains a major public health challenge, and encouraged all Kwarans to get themselves vaccinated free of charge.
He added, “The arrival of the COVID-19 vaccine brought a sigh of relief; as we know like other vaccine preventable diseases, COVID-19 vaccine will reduce the number of illnesses and deaths from the disease.
“I want to specially thank the management of the Kwara State Primary Health Care Development Agency, under the leadership of the Executive Secretary, Dr. Nusirat Elelu, in their resilence in ensuring that Kwarans get vaccinated on a continuous basis since March 2021.”
The Deputy Governor also added that the Kwara State government will continue to do its best to ensure that COVID-19 care and other health services are made available to and accessible for everyone.
Head of the state Primary Health Care Devopment Agency, Dr Elelu, disclosed that the agency had vaccinated over 15,000 individuals since the inception of COVID-19 vaccination exercise in March 2021.
She said, “Today’s flag off by His Excellency, the Deputy Governor of Kwara State, Kayode Alabi, who doubles as the Chairman of the state Task Force on Immunisation, will activate the commencement of several other mass vaccination sites across the state to ensure that more Kwarans are reached with safe and effective vaccine.”
She also informed the gathering that one of the strategies to scale up the number of vaccinated individuals was the mass vaccination option.
She added, “This strategy will utilise approaches that include engaging additional public health facilities (primary, secondary and tertiary), use mobile vaccination vehicles, expansion to selected private health facilities as well as establishment of mass vaccination sites in places with large population.”
In her goodwill address, the Kwara State Coordinator, National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Princess Deborah Oladipo, announced that since the start of the COVID-19 vaccination, a total of 5,891,305 eligible persons had received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccines.
The figure, she said, represented only 5.3 per cent of the overall eligible population, while 3,252,067 have received their second dose and are fully vaccinated, representing only 2.9 per cent of the overall population of eligible persons.
She added, “Indeed, there has been an upsurge in the number of people infected with the virus in recent times, according to the statistics released by the NCDC. This is why this mass vaccination campaign has become necessary to prepare against the flurry of (festive) activities later this year.
UNICEF representative in the state, Idris Nagia, applauded the Kwara State government for the mass vaccination campaign, which he said would go a long way in reaching eligible ages in the state.
The Coordinator of World Health Organisation, WHO, in Kwara State, Mustapha Katibi, explained that the benefit of COVID-19 vaccination (partial or full) is to ensure that in case you are further infected, the severity is reduced, which would help reduce the cases of death.
“We are very happy for the giant strides the state government is making in the health sector, including COVID-19 vaccination. Of all the states in the country, Kwara State is being recognised as one of the high-performing states in COVID-19 vaccination in Nigeria,” Katibi said.
