Health
THE Institute of Human Virology Nigeria (IHVN) has pledged to support to Oyo state achieve herd immunity in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr Aderonke Agbaje, supervises the USAID TB Local Organisations Network (LON III) of IHVN, made this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria(NAN), on Sunday in Abuja.
Agbaje was celebrating the milestone of vaccinating one million people in Oyo State with COVID-19 vaccines between July 2022 and January 2023.
She said that the financial and technical support for COVID-19 vaccination by IHVN USAID TB-LON III would continue in the state.
She added that ot would ensure the much-needed herd immunity, which would protect the state from severe COVID-19 illness.
According to her, IHVN is an indigenous non-profit organisation established in 2004.
She said that the organisers had managed grants from the U.S. Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S. CDC), and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (TGF).
According to her, the U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH), KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation, EDCTP, World Health Organisation (WHO) implement Public Health programmes and research activities in the public and private health sectors.
She explained that the GloVAX is a USAID-funded COVID-19 vaccination project, being implemented by IHVN in Oyo, Lagos and Ogun states to increase COVID-19 vaccination in the three States.<l
“Implementation of the project commenced in Oyo State on July 7, 2022.
“Vaccination activities commenced six months ago with strong collaboration and support from the State Primary Health Care Development Agency (SPHCDA).
“An average of 96 mobile vaccination teams was constituted across 30 Local Government Areas in the State, and a total of 1,061,859 people have been vaccinated thus far.
“That has increased the number of persons vaccinated for COVID-19 from 1,859,041 to 3,149,448,” she said.
According to Agbaje, upon arrival, the IHVN USAID TB LON III GloVax team engaged in high-level advocacy meetings, regular project review meetings with the Oyo state SPHCDA.
She said that the team also engaged the community gatekeepers and initiated the prompt payment of stipends to the vaccination team.
She pledged continous prompt payment of stipends to vaccinators, and continuous support to the state through the State Primary Health Care Board while aligning with the national guidelines on COVID-19 vaccination. (NAN)
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Tags: COVID19 IHVN Oyo
