Bauchi State Governor, Sen Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir, his Deputy, Sen Baba Tela, members of the State Executive Council, traditional and religious leaders as well as frontline health workers on Saturday took turns to be vaccinated against COVID-19 pandemic.
At a flagging off ceremony held at the Banquet Hall of the Government House, Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir led others to attest to the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic is a reality stressing the importance of taking the vaccine.
Speaking shortly after taking his jab of the vaccine, Bala Mohammed said that, COVID-19 pandemic is real and everything humanly possible must be done to fight it to a standstill stressing that the vaccination is one of the ways to fight it.
Bala Mohammed who was the first index case in the state, narrated that the COVID-19 pandemic came as an unexpected disaster to the entire world leaving behind it a devastating story to tell, saying however that with the discovery of the vaccine, people can now heave a sigh of relieve.
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The Governor added that his administration did everything humanly and administratively possible to curb spread of the infection across the state through various means expressing happiness that the efforts of government paid off as the pandemic was curtailed.
He further said that, the government funded the establishment of a Molecular testing facility in collaboration with the NCDC and the NEDC which facilitated the testing of samples taken thereby reducing the stress of going to Jos or Abuja for the same purpose.
Bala Mohammed also said that his administration will continue to prioritize health services delivery to the people of the state because according to him, a healthy society is a wealthy society stressing that no amount is too much to spend in ensuring quality Healthcare coverage in the state.
The Governor then called on traditional and religious leaders to ensure that they engaged in sensitization of their people on the need of adhering to all the COVID-19 infection prevention protocols as well as get registered for the vaccination.
In his remarks, State Deputy Governor who is Chairman of the State Taskforce on COVID-19 and Lassa Fever, Sen Baba Tela explained that the Astrazeniker vaccine allocated to the state is effective in the prevention of COVID-19 infection.
He stressed that in the first phase of the exercise is targeted at all frontline health workers across the state because according to him, these category of people are more exposed to the risk of infection considering that they are the first contact of an infected person.
Baba Tela added that with the introduction of the vaccines, the end has gradually come for the COVID-19 pandemic warning however that people should fell free to come out to take the vaccination.
The Deputy Governor commended the Governor for giving his Taskforce a free hand to operate saying, “as a committee, we operated under your guidance, every advice you gave us was very useful to our operation, in fact, we were able to get to where we are today because you gave us your maximum cooperation and support.”
Earlier in his remarks, State Commissioner of Health, Dr Aliyu Maigoro Mohammed said that so far, a total of 43,000 health workers across the state have registered for the vaccination saying that it is the first batch from Astrazeniker while Pfizer, and other manufacturers will make supplies very soon.
The Commissioner added that the state is expected to take delivery of 150,000 doses for the first phase but due to some calculations, only got 80,570 doses assuring that the balance will be delivered very soon by the Ministry of Health through the NPHCDA.
He said that immediately after the symbolic flagging off, people who were registered will take turn to take the vaccination urging members of the public to get registered in order to be captured in the vaccination exercise declaring that only those registered that will be attended to.
The Health Commissioner urged people not to be scare of the side effects but to report same to the nearest health facility for remedy saying that, “every drug has its side effects which does not call for panic as arrangements have been made to take of such”.
Dr. Aliyu Maigoro assured that health workers have been trained on how to go about the vaccination exercise in all of the 323 PHCs in each political ward across the state saying people can walk into of the facility to get a jab of the vaccine after been registered.
WHO Representative in Bauchi office, Dr Adamu Ningi who gave an overview of the Astrazeniger vaccine said that it has been tested all over the world and found to be very effective assuring that with it, COVID-19 infection will be checked.
Also, the NPHCDA assured that the vaccine will go round people of the country as according to him more than half of the population of the country is the target explaining however that for the first phase, 10 per cent of the population will be reached.