From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
The federal government disclosed on Thursday that it has exceeded its target as regards COVID-19 vaccination across the country.
The government said it had set the target of reaching out to 70 per cent of the eligible population of Nigerians with COVID-19 vaccines by December 2022, but more people were reached with the vaccine within the period.
Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Faisal Shuaib, who spoke to journalists after a meeting with Nasarawa State Governor, Abdullahi Sule, in Abuja, said the feat was achieved due to the support the Agency received from the President, Muhammadu Buhari, and other stakeholders, notably, traditional and religious leaders, as well as the media.
He said: “Available data indicated that we have exceeded the expectations and the target we set for ourselves regarding COVID-19 vaccination. At the beginning of the exercise, we told Nigerians that by December 2022, we would have covered 70 per cent of the eligible population. Now, we are at the point where we have fully vaccinated about 53 per cent of the eligible population, and 63 per cent of population with first dose.
“Going by the available figure, we are doing very well. We never expected that we would achieve the feat we did given the fact that we have issues of infrastructure and inadequate manpower. We have reached 54 million Nigerians with full vaccination and over 60 million people with the first shot of the vaccine.
“However, it’s obvious that the success we recorded was as a result of the support we got from the President and other stakeholders, notably, traditional, religious leaders including the media.”
Dr. Faisal, however, commended Nasarawa State government for the continued improvement in Primary Health Care (PHC) services which culminated in increased access to COVID-19 vaccination and other immunization services.
He said that aside Nasarawa State, Jigawa and Kano states have also recorded tremendous improvement in PHC services as evident in data from the states.
He confirmed that both states and others would be openly rewarded soon to serve as encouragement to other states to see the need to improve their PHC services.
Nasarawa State governor, Abdullahi Sule, in his remarks, appreciated the recognition, and dedicated it to frontline health workers and other officials of the state who have dedicated themselves to the service of the people.
He promised that the state will sustain the achievements as it has established a system that would ensure sustained financial and human investments in the health sector.