By Asmau Ahmad
The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) has again appealed to Nigerians who are yet to be vaccinated to get the COVID-19 vaccines.
The Executive Secretary of the agency, Dr Faisal Shuaib, made the call at a one-day evaluation meeting for COVID-19 vaccination exercise.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the meeting was organised by the Nigeria Solidarity Support Fund (NSSF), an independent partner, assisting the NPHCDA to drive the campaign for vaccination against CoVID-19.
NSSF entered into agreement with NPHCDA in Sept. 2021, to support COVID-19 vaccination campaign across the country, but kick-started the project with six states, including Edo, Ogun, Nasarawa, Adamawa, Katsina and Imo.
The goal, of the agreement is to vaccinate one million eligible Nigerians in the States
Dr Shuaib, represented at the meeting, by Dr Bassey Okposen, Director of Disease Control and immunisation/Programme Manager, COVID-19 vaccination war room, NPHCDA, said: “the virus was still very much in the circulation. COVID-19 is still very active and there is need for Nigerians to get vaccinated and stay safe.
“People are still dying globally, there are countries that are still having new outbreaks, it is good we take the vaccine and kick COVID out of our country.
“We are not only doing COVID-19 vaccination at the moment, we are also doing integrated vaccination, along with routine immunisation, maternal services and other care at the primary healthcare level.
“As a nation, we have not achieved credibility on this, we need to get vaccinated so that we can still be safe as a country,” he said.
He said till date, 55.6 per cent of Nigerians have taken only the first dose.
The director also said that 44.6 per cent of Nigerians are fully vaccinated.
“The current drive under the leadership of the Minister of Health, with the support from the President and the entire presidential steering committee on COVID-19, has made us move the figure from 13 per cent.
“Our target is to ensure 70 per cent of the population get vaccinated before December 2022, we are working hard on this.”
