The Ekiti state Commissioner for Health, Dr Oyebanji Filani, Wednesday, said the new strains of COVID-19 have made it imperative for citizens to get vaccinated to protect themselves and others from the virus.
A press statement obtained by Blueprint in Abuja Thursday said Filani spoke in Ado Ekiti during the inauguration of ‘One -Stop Surge Mass Vaccination Programme’ which heralded mass vaccination of residents against COVID-19 disease, added that it was targeted at reaching about 1.68m residents that represented 70 per cent of the 2.4million population of the state.
He said the ongoing mass vaccination was also targeted at people living with HIV.
He noted that the mass vaccination was a partnership between the state government and the Public Health Initiatives and Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, adding that various COVID-19 vaccines such as Johnson and Johnson, Moderna and AstraZeneca were available to be administered on beneficiaries.
Filani said: “The collaboration with other agencies will make it possible to vaccinate 70 per cent of the total eligible population of the state.
“We are seeing a new strain of COVID-19, which makes it expedient that many people should be vaccinated. We have a single dose vaccine that one can just take and consider a full dose and the process is painless.
“The national standard and directive is to ensure that over 70 per cent of the population is rapidly vaccinated before June.
“We have 0.4 per cent of HIV spread in Ekiti State, all of whom are on Antiretroviral Drugs, and we will make sure that people living with this disease get their COVID-19 vaccines.”
Filani assured that the government would manage the process of mass vaccination by ensuring that people comply strictly with safety protocols, including wearing of nose masks.
The representative of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr Bunmi Ajayi, stated that, “The record from the Western world show that the disease spread is increasing, so we must do constant routine immunisation. There should be an upscale of vaccination for measles, yellow fever and others, to achieve health immunity in the state.”