Spurred by successes recorded from decentralising vaccination sites across the country, the federal government has decided to expand it’s reach by setting up vaccination sites in Markets, Tertiary institutions, Shopping malls, Religious centers, Sporting events and Conference centers.
Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Faisal Shuaib disclosed this on Thursday, October 14, 2021 during a press briefing on covid-19 vaccination update in Abuja.
TheFact Nigeria recalled that the Presidential Steering Committee on covid-19 had on Wednesday announced compulsory vaccination for civil servants, a decision that was met with mixed reactions.
Dr. Faisal stated that the objective of establishing mass vaccination sites across the country was the opportunity it provided to access and vaccinate high volume of individuals.
The NPHCDA boss posited that this move will require strong collaboration between NPHCDA, State Governments, religious bodies, school authorities and governing bodies of malls and large sporting events.
He therefore, urged the public to take advantage of the effort of the government and avail themselves for vaccination against covid-19.
The NPHCDA boss disclosed that a study was done by his Agency in Anambra, Borno, Edo, Katsina, Lagos and Plateau to monitor the safety of covid-19 vaccines in enrolled adult individuals 18 years and above who had received the authorised covid-19 vaccine in Nigeria, for the purpose of safety signal detection.
The study was led by Prof Akin Osibogun, a Professor of Community Medicine at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital.
It sought to estimate the incidence of adverse events following immunisation with different brands of the COVID-19 vaccine in all enrolled immunized subjects.
“Findings of this study showed that 52.6% 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 vaccinees were tenderness at injection site 20.9% and fever 20.3%.
“Most of the reported symptoms (55.5%) occurred within the first 3 days of vaccination while 40.2% of the vaccinees with reported symptoms could not recall time of onset of symptoms.
“Adverse Effects Following Immunization were reported more in the older age groups with 61.5% of those older than 60 years reporting symptoms compared to 34.9% of those aged 18-24 years. The difference for age was statistically significant (p=0.003).
“Those with pre-existing morbidities were also observed to have higher rates of reported symptoms (AEFIs) than those without pre-existing morbidities even though the observed difference was not statistically significant (p=0.551).
“The findings suggest that from the perspective of public communication, the vaccine is quite safe and the reported symptoms are mild and to be expected in the first three days following vaccination.
“Also, older vaccinees are to be particularly counselled as to what to expect and not to panic as the symptoms are mild and time limited.
“There was no report of Vaccine-induced COVID-19 or deaths related to the vaccines”, Dr. Faisal said.
