COVID-19 vaccination to end May 14 in FCT – Official

Mrs Salome Tor, Programme Officer, Immunisation Services, FCT Primary Health Care Board (FPHCB), says the COVID-19 vaccination exercise will  end in six days time, precisely May 14.The officer told newsmen on Friday in Abuja at a one-day media orientation workshop on COVID-19 vaccination in FCT.

The media orientation workshop was aimed at encouraging more people to get vaccinated before the exercise closes and to charge media to help pass the information to the public. According to her, FCT received 248, 400 doses of vaccine to immunise the FCT populace and that a total of 96,559 have been successfully vaccinated as at May 6, 2021.She added that the FCT was using 169 team of health workers for the vaccination, saying  they were capable to do the work and get everybody vaccinated.

“We have a minimum of three health workers in each team, they have all been distributed into the six area council, all the government hospitals in the FCT are selected location for this vaccination.“ We also have temporary fixed post team; these are special teams who visit various organisations or special location. We urge people to go and vaccinate before the exercise closes,” she stressed.

Tor also said that in spite of the campaign about COVID-19, some people had yet to get the message about the virus and urged the media to champion the information before vaccination halts. In his opening address, the Executive Secretary, FPHCB, Dr Iwot Ndaeyo, noted that not being vaccinated posed  dangers to everyone. According to him, the FCT authority is working toward making sure that 80 per cent of people in a community gets vaccinated to have  immunity over the virus.“ We need at least seven out of 10 people to be vaccinated to be able to withstand the SARS 2 virus of COVID-19.“I consider that as a deliberate hazard that will become hazardous to the community, so we advice that people shouldn’t put themselves in that position, they should go ahead and take the vaccine.“

We started this vaccination in FCT on March 15, the country at large started it on March 5, we have not seen anybody who complains of the vaccine in FCT, maybe blood clot or death.“ Why are people waiting, they should go ahead and take this vaccine in the health facility within the 62 wards of the FCT, the vaccine is safe,” Ndaeyo said. Dr Ruqayya Wamakko, the Director in charge of the Primary Healthcare Unit, FPHCB, charged the media to help champion the information about the vaccine. According to her, no intervention will work without telling people of what to do and that media can  help drive the information that will encourage people to turn out for the vaccine.

She said that COVID-19 vaccine  development was given priority because of the emergency attached to the virus in the rate which  was killing people and advised people to take the vaccination serious.“ Coronavirus vaccine is the fastest developed vaccine in the world, emergency is given to it because of the way it has been killing people. “A lot of stages must be past before a vaccine is developed, but COVID-19 vaccine case is different,” Wamakko said. Also, Mr Abdulrasheed Jimoh, World Health Organisation (WHO) Consultant to FCT healthcare board, called on the media to help develop attitudinal change in the mind of the public about COVID-19 and the vaccine. He urged  members of the public to do away with myths and lies about COVID-19 vaccine.(NAN)