As part of proactive measures to nip the covid-19 pandemic in the bud, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) has announced its plan to take the covid -19 vaccination excercise to people in their respective offices.
Dr. Faisal Shuaib, Executive Director of the agency disclosed this in Abuja today while briefing the press on the progress of the phase II covid-19 vaccination rollout.
TheFact Nigeria gathered that the country was trying every possible means to use up the vaccines due to their short lifespan.
According to the NPHCDA boss, this development was coming on the heels of complaints from workers who could not go to the designated vaccination centers due to the nature of their jobs. He said:
“In recognition of the fact that some workers may find it difficult to leave their duty post to the vaccination site, we have introduced and expanded in-situ corporate vaccination.
“This entails making special arrangement for eligible staff, dependants and retirees of Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Government (MDAs) and the private sector to get vaccinated in their office premises.
“MDAs, public and private corporate organization that require staff to be vaccinated should visit www.nphcda.gov.ng to fill the request form.
“These services would be provided at no cost to the Ministries, agency/cooperate bodies.
“States and LGAs should please note that no fees/levies should be mandated from the cooperate bodies when teams are sent to provide these services”, said Dr. Shuaib.
He further hinted that the phase II COVID-19 vaccination with Moderna and AstraZeneca had fully commenced in all the 36 states and FCT.
“I want to particularly urge all those who received their first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine before 8th July, 2021 to visit the nearest designated health facility and receive their 2nd dose.
“The list of vaccination sites across the country is available on the NPHCDA website. It has also been published in the Daily Trust and The Nation newspapers.
Dr. Faisal revealed that the country recieved extra vaccines and was therefore capable of continuing the vaccination excercise. He said:
“We received an additional 1,394,480 doses of vaccines through the COVAX facility.
“We also received 1,123,200 doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine late evening on Saturday 4th September 2021 through the AVATT platform, coordinated by the African Union Commission, as part of the 39,800,000 doses procured by the Federal Government of Nigeria”, said the NPHCDA boss.
He also disclosed that the Delta variant was highly contagious, more than twice as contagious as previous COVID-19 variants and the more a community/society remained unvaccinated, the more they allowed the virus mutate to other more virulent forms.
The Executive Director, NPHCDA admonished all eligible persons to take advantage of the government’s efforts and get vaccinated, Dr. Shuaib said:
“We have the vaccines to stop this mutation process and prevent deaths related to this disease. I therefore encourage us to take advantage of the efforts by the Federal Government to ensure citizens are safe and protected from this virus”, he said.
