COVID-19: Ekiti To Vaccinate 1.5m, Targets HIV/Aids Patients
As part of a mass vaccination program yesterday, Ekiti State government vaccinated 1.5 million residents against COVID-19. Dr. Oyebanji Filani, the State’s Commissioner for Health, said this at a One-stop Surge Mass Vaccination Programme for the general population and HIV-positive persons. In his remarks, Dr. Filani noted that the mass vaccination exercise was a partnership between the Ekiti State government and Public Health Initiatives as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Various injectable COVID-19 vaccines like Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, and Astrazeneca are available to the beneficiaries.
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“The collaboration with other agencies will make it possible to vaccinate 70 per cent of the total eligible population of Ekiti State out of the 2.4 million population. 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 it a full dose and the process is painless. The national standard and directive is to ensure that over 70 per cent of the population are rapidly vaccinated before June. We have 0.4 per cent in HIV spread in Ekiti, all of whom are on Anti-retroviral Drugs and we will make sure that people living with this disease get their COVID-19 vaccines.”
In order to dispel any fears that the ongoing electioneering campaigns would add fuel to the spread of COVID-19 in Ekiti, Dr. Filani reassured that the government was going to manage the process, by ensuring that people comply with the wearing of masks and adhere strictly to other safety protocols.
In her submissions, Dr. Bunmi Ajayi, the representative of World Health Organisation (WHO), said that COVID-19 is a global emergency disease and that the international body was interested in upscaling vaccinations for safety.
“The records from the Western world showed that the disease spread is increasing, so we must do constant routine immunisation. Also, there should be an upscale of vaccination for measles, yellow fever and others, to achieve health immunity in the state.”
Dr. Charles Doherty, the Programme Manager, Ekiti State Committee on HIV/AIDS, stated that 20 team of vaccinators had been composed to cover 20 Local Governments and Local Council Development Areas, to spearhead the programme.
“By the time the programme will end, Ekiti must have hit the national target, which is to vaccinate over 70 per cent of the population before the end of June, 2022.”
