The Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Faisal Shuaib, said that the mass vaccination exercise rolled out by the government was yielding results as more Nigerians were been vaccinated.
Shuaib in his remarks at the 4th Quarter Meeting of the Northern Traditional Leaders Committee on Primary Health Care Delivery, said, although the current figure is still far from the government’s target of vaccinating 112 million eligible persons for Nigeria to attain herd immunity however there is a significant improvement on figures since the implementation of the mass vaccination campaign.
“To further increase coverage and strengthen immunity against COVID-19, the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19 response, in collaboration with Federal Ministry of Health and NPHCDA has approved the administration of booster dose for persons that have completed 2 doses of AstraZeneca, Moderna, Pfizer Bio-N-Tech or 1 dose of Johnson & Johnson vaccines”.
“As earlier mentioned, the booster dose is meant to strengthen the immune response to COVID-19 infection. People who take booster dose have greater protection against COVID-19”.
Shuaib, while commending the leaders, pointed out that the NTLC was established 15 years ago had played a crucial role in the fight against polio, meningitis in the region.
He noted that with the spread of COVID-19, the Federal Government had engaged the NTLC to help in its efforts to tackle the pandemic in their region.
The Chairman of NTLC and Emir of Argungu Alhaji Samaila Mera pledged the continuous support of Traditional and Religious leaders for all PHC programmes especially COVID-19 vaccination and polio eradication.
“The 4th quarter review meeting resolved to set up mass vaccination sites in palaces to enhance community confidence in the vaccines and increase uptake”.
“The engagement provides a unique opportunity to interact with traditional leaders on their role and responsibility towards increasing the uptake of COVID-19 vaccination and improving PHC delivery”.
“There are also discussions around the current COVID-19 Mass Vaccination Campaign, Polio Outbreak Response and Non-Polio SIAs”.
“With the new detection of the omicron variants in the country and the rise in COVID-19 cases, the need for more inclusion of all opinion leaders has now become more necessary than before”.
The Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Sa’ad Abubakar III said that trust deficit among the citizens remains a major challenge to the COVID-19 vaccination exercise in the country.
He urged the Federal Government to do more in building confidence in Nigerians as he noted that traditional leaders in the north were ready to support the Federal Government,
He noted that the government needed to also address the trust deficit among the citizens as more can be achieved if the government adequately carried them along.
His Eminence also cleared the air on the advisory role of the traditional leaders, stating that they do not seek to criticize political leaders but to offer pieces of advice that would better the lives of the people.
He counselled Nigerians to disregard conspiracy theories and rumours around the COVID-19 vaccine and get vaccinated to keep them and their loved ones saved.
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