By Zayamu Hassan
The Nigeria’s Federal Government has disclosed that it is working closely with relevant security agencies to unravel, name and shame individuals who buy or sell COVID-19 vaccination cards no matter how highly placed they are in the society.
The Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Faisal Shuaib, disclosed this at a media briefing in Abuja.
“We are cognizant of the fact that some unscrupulous elements would want to get the card and not the jab. We are working with relevant security agencies to make examples of these individuals who may wish to buy or sell the cards by naming and shaming them.
“We are also enhancing the security features of our vaccination cards in order to limit forgeries.”
Dr Shuaib also disclosed that the NPHCDA has concluded plans to begin mass vaccination in the country.
With this arrangement, Shuaib, disclosed that the agency will visit federal institutions, polytechnics, universities, markets and many other public places to vaccinate Nigerians.
“In line with the NPHCDA commitment to ramp up COVID-19 vaccine uptake the agency has put in place plans for the establishment of mass vaccination sites across the country.
“The objective of this strategy is to vaccinate a high volume of individuals through large sites such as Federal institutions (universities, polytechnics), shopping malls, religious centers, sporting events, conference centers, and markets etc.
“This will require strong collaboration between NPHCDA, State Governments, religious bodies, school authorities and governing bodies of malls and large sporting events.
“As we expand the vaccination sites, we encourage all eligible Nigerians to avail themselves for vaccination.
“I am also glad to inform you that we have commenced the process of decentralizing COVID-19 vaccination in Nigeria, to include private health care providers. This is to expand access and increase utilization of the vaccines,” Shuaib said.
The NPHCDA executive director further revealed that a study conducted by his agency has shown that no death was recorded as a result of the uptake of the COVID-19 in the six states of Anambra, Borno, Edo, Katsina, Lagos and Plateau.
This, according to him, meant that the COVID-19 vaccines were safe.
“The overall aim of the observational study was to monitor the safety of COVID-19 vaccines in enrolled adult individuals 18 years and above who have received the authorized COVID-19 vaccine in Nigeria for the purpose of safety signal detection.
“Findings of this study showed that 52.6 per cent of enrolees (1,284 were enrolled) reported non-serious adverse effects and only 1 subject or 0.08% reported serious adverse effect in the first week following vaccination.
“None of the enrolled subjects who reported adverse effects required hospitalization. The commonest reported symptoms among vaccines were tenderness at injection site 20.9 per cent and fever 20.3 per cent.
“Most of the reported symptoms 55.5 per cent occurred within the first three days of vaccination while 40.2 per cent of the vaccinees with reported symptoms could not recall time of onset of symptoms,” he said.
