The Federal Government has introduced a corporate vaccination module that allows eligible workers, dependants and retirees of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), as well as the private sector get vaccinated in their office premises.
This is in recognition of the fact that some workers might find it difficult to leave their duty posts for designated centres.
Consequently, the government has urged Nigerians to note the number of COVID-19 cases recorded in this third wave and remember that the Delta variant is highly contagious, more than twice as infectious as previous COVID-19 variants, adding that the more a community remains unvaccinated, the more it allows the virus to mutate to other more virulent forms.
Executive Secretary of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Faisal Shuaib, who disclosed this at the weekly COVID-19 vaccination update yesterday in Abuja, urged MDAs, public and private organisations that want their workers vaccinated to fill a request form, explaining that the exercise is free of charge.
He advised states and councils against charging fee when teams are sent to provide the services. Shuaib restated that the agency had the vaccines to stop the mutation and check deaths arising from the disease. He appealed to Nigerians to take advantage of ongoing efforts against spread of the virus.
On the few vaccinated individuals that have contracted the ailment, the NPHCDA boss said: “Where such rare cases of COVID-19 infection occur in individuals, who have received the vaccination more than 14 days prior, it is called breakthrough infection.
The observation is that in these individuals, the disease is usually milder than those who were unvaccinated. Vaccination prevents one from severe disease, hospitalisation and death. If our communities continue to remain unvaccinated, we will keep endangering our citizens, most especially those who are vulnerable, elderly or immuno-compromised.”
He said as at September 6, 2021, 3,600,858 eligible Nigerians have received the first dose, stressing that “this is made up of 2,551,738 persons vaccinated with AstraZeneca vaccine and 1,049,120 persons vaccinated with Moderna vaccine.”
Shuaib continued: “Therefore, 1,576,011 persons have been fully vaccinated with AstraZeneca vaccine. We have now restarted the administration of AstraZeneca as first dose in all designated health facilities. The decision to re-open AstraZeneca for first dose administration is hinged on the fact that we received an additional 1,394,480 doses through the COVAX facility.”
You may recall that at previous briefings, I did inform you that as we receive additional supplies, we will open it up for first dose administration.”
According to him, Nigeria, on Saturday evening, received 1,123,200 doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine through the AVATT platform, coordinated by the African Union Commission, as part of the 39,800,000 doses procured by the Federal Government, while the National Agemcy for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) team had taken samples for analysis and was scanning the codes for proper serialisation.
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