By Asmau Ahmad
Kaduna State Government has inaugurated the Scales 3.0 COVID-19 campaign, which target the vaccination of 70 per cent of residents of the state by the end of the year.
Acting Governor of the state, Dr Hadiza Balarabe during the inauguration at the Government House in Kaduna, said that the Scales 3.0 campaign was the state government’s next iteration of COVID-19 vaccination for eligible residents of the state.
She said that the programme was an initiative of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) adopted by the state government.
She explained that it was to accelerate COVID-19 vaccination as well as ensure its adequate integration with other primary healthcare interventions and public healthcare services across the state.
“The Scales 3.0 campaign is a strategy designed for implementation within three months, using mobile special teams to take vaccination to residents’ doorsteps, in addition to integrating it to our facility-based services,” Balarabe said.
She noted that the Kaduna State recorded a significant increase in the number of COVID-19 cases, with a total of 140 new positive cases in the last four weeks.
The acting governor attributed the new cases to decline in observing the measures originally put in place to check the disease, including fully vaccinating 54 per cent of eligible residents in the state.
In her remarks, the Kaduna State Commissioner for Health, Dr Amina Baloni, said that the state government had been working very hard to ensure the citizens got vaccinated with COVID-19 vaccine.
She said that the intention was to reach every community across the state with the vaccine before the end of the year.
Baloni said that so far, people had been complying and had been receiving the vaccine adding that, so far, 61 per cent of eligible residents from 18 years and above had received at least a dose of the vaccine
The commissioner said they relied on the support of the local government area chairmen, who m she said had been mobilising their people for the vaccine.
She said that she hoped that the sensitisation would yield more positive results so that the target of vaccinating 70 per cent of the residents of Kaduna State would have been achieved by the end of the year.
