Lagos State governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on Wednesday, said there is a possibility of the fourth wave of coronavirus (COVID-19) emerging in the country as the Yuletide approaches, as he launched a mass vaccination campaign, aimed at vaccinating four million residents in the state before the end of the year.
Residents of Lagos, who are 18 years and above are eligible to be fully immunised with the COVID-19 vaccine.
Governor Sanwo-Olu made this known while flagging off the immunisation programme tagged: “Operation Count Me in 4 Million Lagosians Vaccinated Against COVID-19,” which took place at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island.
The accelerated vaccine rollout, which is part of the strategies to stave off the re-emergence of the viral infection, is being undertaken by the Lagos State government in collaboration with National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA).
Sanwo-Olu, while expressing the belief that the mass vaccination campaign would help bolster the state’s response to the emerging threat posed by the pandemic, said the joint committee set up by the state government and NPHCDA to oversee the implementation of the campaign would be opening vaccination sites in high traffic locations as part of the strategies to expand vaccine access in underserved communities.
The governor added that mobile vans would be deployed to move round boundary settlements in order to reach individuals in areas with limited access to health facilities.
“There is potential for the fourth wave of COVID-19, as our borders would be opened to all people coming into Lagos in December.
“To prevent the catastrophic events we witnessed in the previous waves, the state has developed a robust vaccination drive, leveraging on both the strengths we have in the public and private sectors of our healthcare system. In the development of our strategy and counter-measures, we prioritise the protection of human lives and keeping our economy open for business.
“To mitigate against this potential damage that will further spread existing variants of COVID-19 in the State, and accelerate efforts towards herd immunity, the need for a different strategy became a front-burner issue. This is what has culminated in the campaign, tagged ‘Count Me In! 4 million Lagosians Vaccinated Against COVID-19’ to target the full vaccination of 4 million Lagos residents before the end of December 2021.
“Once achieved, this will bring the State closer to reaching our promise to vaccinate 30 per cent of our population within one year,” Sanwo-Olu stated.
The governor said that, since March when Lagos started its vaccination programme, it had successfully vaccinated 800,000 residents with the first dose of Moderna vaccine and 310,000 persons fully vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine.
According to him, this sums up the total number of residents vaccinated with the first dose of either AstraZeneca or Moderna to 1.2 million, saying the efforts had raised the number of fully vaccinated individuals to 550,000, which accounts for about four per cent of the State’s population.
Sanwo-Olu re-emphasised that the vaccines being administered were safe and remain free of charge in public health facilities.
He, however, said an administrative charge of N6,000 would be paid by individuals who wished to get the vaccines at approved private facilities.
The Governor charged all stakeholders, including the local council chairmen, to mobilise for participation in the programme and ensure the success of the campaign.
“We have set up COVID-19 vaccination in all our 205 public primary health centres, 14 of the State’s second and tertiary hospitals, and we are hoping that this partnership can be implemented in over 400 private health centres across seven underserved Local Government Areas in the state.
“Let me re-emphasise that we are not compelling anyone to get vaccinated. But, we want everyone to take it as personal responsibility, which is highly important.
“What we seek to achieve by this campaign is to ensure there is access to the vaccines and availability. Then, give people an opportunity to get vaccinated at centres close to them. This will give nobody a reason not to get the vaccines,” he said.
The State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, described the vaccination campaign as “ambitious,” saying the state government had put in place a two-pronged approach to prevent the fourth wave of the pandemic.
“The first step is to control the inbound flight passengers and maintain adherence to all preventive measures that have been put in place, while the second step is to closely monitor the isolation of those coming from the red zone area,” Abayomi said.
NPHCDA Executive Director, Dr Shuaib Faisal, disclosed that only 2,950,232 Nigerians had been fully vaccinated, saying this was a far cry from reaching the target number for herd immunity.
“We have enough vaccines in storage to give many people the opportunity to get vaccinated. We now have the jabs, but we now need the arms,” he assured.
The campaign kicked off with the symbolic vaccination of Mr Okeke Onyeama, a private security guard, who was inoculated in presence of the Governor and NPHCDA boss.
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