By Iyema David
The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), says Kaduna State has joined Jigawa, Nasarawa and Kano states in vaccinating its target number of eligible persons daily in the COVID-19 mass vaccination campaign in the country.
Executive Director of NPHCDA, Dr Faisal Shuaib, said this on Monday in Abuja, at the bi weekly Ministerial Press Briefing, update on COVID-19 Response and Development in the Health Sector.
Represented by Dr Nneka Onu, Director of Primary Health Care Systems at the NPHCDA, Shauib said that five State have topped as the agency’s performing states on the COVID-19 mass vaccination campaign in the country.
He said that the five states were Nasarawa, Jigawa, Kano, Kwara and Ogun States.
“In the last seven days, Jigawa and Nasarawa improved their coverage of fully vaccinated persons by over 3.5 per cent and five per cent respectively. Jigawa and Kano have each vaccinated over 2.5 million eligible persons with the first dose, and fully vaccinated over two million more,” he said.
The NPHCDA boss disclosed that some few doses of Moderna COVID-19 vaccines would be expiring by the end of April, 2022.
He noted that these vaccines were still efficacious and that would be used up by the states before end of April, adding that this was to further demonstrate the high standards that the agency operate within the country.
“The work that we do is the work that requires trust. It is a sacred trust that has been bestowed on us by the generalizing generality of Nigerians and hold that trust to be true.
“And we pride that trust very jealously. This is why we do not accept any vaccine doses that is less than six months of expiration,” he explained.
Shauib added that, “To further strengthen vaccine security and accountability, we are deepening our collaboration with the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
“Our partnership in this regard is also aimed at further curbing cases of vaccine mismanagement and other anticipated sharp practices at the vaccination sites.”
