The Minister of State for Health Dr. Olorunnimbe Mamora has disclosed that the country was lagging behind in it’s Covid-19 vaccination target, saying a whooping 22,355,300 people out of it’s second quarter target remained unvaccinated.
Mamora made the disclosure at a Press Briefing on Update on Covid-19 Pandemic Response and other Development in the Health Sector in Abuja on Monday, April 11, 2022.
TheFact Daily gathered that the low vaccination turnout was due to the Government’s laxity in tackling Covid-19 vaccination card racketeering.
Commenting on the progress made so far, the Health Boss said: “Despite all efforts, a lot still has to be done to reach the 50% eligible population vaccinated by second quarter of the year 2022.
“The total number of eligible population fully vaccinated with first and second dose as at 10th April, 2022 is 13,588,718, while for first dose is 23,012,700 and for second dose is 10,727,259 of the total eligible population targeted which is 111,776,503”, he said.
According to Mamora, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) had confirmed that nationally, 60% of people that received their first dose returned to take the second and that the Agency was making conscious efforts to reduce wastage rates of vaccine minimally by ensuring that all forms of hesitancy were handled and people complete their doses.
Some of the strategies employed to curb vaccine wastage are the Service Integration Strategy and also innovations which has yielded positive results so far.
Representative of the NPHCDA at the briefing lamented the low booster dose uptake pegging it at 835,000 administered doses. She however disclosed that Nassarawa state had the highest vaccination uptake, followed by Jigawa, Kano, Ogun and Kwara.
Citing some of the challenges faced by the Agency with regards Covid-19 vaccination, she said poor coordination at subnational level, vaccine hesistency, inadequate human resources and the novelty of integrating covid-19 vaccines into routine immunisation was also new to people, leading to low vaccine uptake.
