Health
THE Kwara Government on says the state will continue to strive to achieve 70 per cent COVID-19 vaccination coverage in order to achieve herd immunity against the disease.
Dr Raji Razaq, the state Commissioner for Health, made the assertion in Ilorin during the flag-off of the SCALES 3.0 COVID-19 vaccination campaign on Monday in Ilorin.
Razaq lamented that presently the state has only achieved 38 per cent coverage in COVID-19 vaccination out of 70 per cent target.
He recalled the devastating impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the economy and lives of the people in the state, country and the world as large.
“The pandemic is still with us and should not be taken with levity. Kwara is not comfortable with present 6th position on efforts and achievement on COVID-19 vaccination.
“The state will strive and reach the first position and reach the 70 percent target,” he said.
Razaq pointed out that funding remains critical for the success of achieving goals, while urging all stakeholders and partners to support the government to achieve the set objectives.
The commissioner disclosed that ad-hoc personnel have been recruited by the government, trained and deployed to all hard to reach areas of the state for effective COVID-19 vaccine campaign.
Dr Nusirat Elelu, the Executive Secretary of the State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, blamed hesitancy among residents of the state on COVID-19 vaccination to a recorded low COVID-19 vaccination campaign in the state.
She described the development as a huge challenge, adding that it slowed down the rate at which the agency wanted to cover and break the transmission of the COVID-19 in the state.
She explained that the state now achieved 38 per cent coverage in COVID-19 vaccination, while appealing to people to make themselves available for COVID-19 vaccination for first shot, second shot or booster shot as the case may be during the exercise.
“Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq in 2021 launched COVID-19 vaccination exercise upon discovery of highly efficacious COVID-19 vaccines.
“However, one would be surprised that along side established efficacy of some of those vaccines, we still have problems of hesitancy.
“In the first one year of the COVID-19, we had lots of hesitancy in terms of people hesitating to take the vaccines. It was a huge challenge. It slowed down the rate at which we wanted to cover and break the transmission of the COVID-19 in the state,” she said.
According to her, the state launched another campaign strategy which was the scale 2.0 meant to ramp up that coverage.
It employed both the mass vaccination campaign mode and fixed post campaign mode.
“As at January we’re less than 20 per cent in our coverage of about 70 per cent. But as at today, we’re 38 per cent in terms of our coverage.
“We’ve consistently been on the top six of states in the country. We’re not happy the way we are still despite that we’re on the first quarter of the country.
“What we want to achieve is 70 per cent of people in Kwara state are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
“So, what we are now doing is to deploy 592 teams of about 3,000 personnel, out of which 119 of those teams are going to be outreach teams in order to reach every hard-to-reach area in the state, as well as every eligible person in the state. They’ll move from house-to-house, place to place like that,” she said.
On his part, Dr Michael Oguntoye, the Director, Primary Health Care Development Agency, expressed optimism that the SCALES 3.0 COVID-19 vaccination campaign will ensure many people get vaccinated not only for COVID-19 but also other vaccine preventable diseases.
He therefore appealed to residents to avail themselves of the vaccines that will be brought closer to communities across the 16 local government areas of the state. (NAN)
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Tags: AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq Covid-19 Michael Oguntoye Nusirat Elelu Raji Razaq
