General news
Nigeria begins COVID-19 childhood vaccination
National Primar
The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) has integrated childhood vaccination at COVID-19 vaccination points for children 0-23 months.
This is to ensure that preventable childhood illnesses are not neglected in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Executive Director
Executive Director, NPHCDA, Dr. Faisal Shuaib, revealed this at the national weekly briefing on COVID-19 vaccines on Tuesday, in Abuja.
News Agency
The Nigerian News Agency reports that this was part of the first meeting for 2022 to give an update on the progress of the country’s COVID-19 vaccination process.
Federal Government
According to him, the integration of childhood immunization is part of the Federal Government‘s plan to involve childhood immunization in its ongoing campaign train against COVID-19.
“In this phase of mass vaccination against COVID-19, the campaign would be integrated with child immunization and other primary health care services.
“What this simply means is that along with COVID-19 vaccines, childhood vaccines will also be available at COVID-19 vaccination centers.
“Accordingly, parents or guardians with children aged zero to 23 months are urged to bring them to vaccination sites,” he said.
Calling on Nigerians to use the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination campaign across the country, Shuaib said that the holiday season has come with an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases.
The NPHCDA chief said a number of unvaccinated people were migrating from cities to rural areas and back to cities.
“Globally, we saw the emergence of new variants, such as the IHU variant in France, which is said to have 46 mutations, Deltacron in Cyprus, and the Omicron variant that remains highly infectious with a rapidly spreading BA.2 subvariant.
“More of our citizens were contracting the infection. Fortunately for our vaccinated population, those who contracted COVID-19 infection had mild symptoms that they managed at home due to the immunity provided by the vaccine.
“If they weren’t vaccinated, we can’t predict how these cases would have turned out. Vaccination prevents you from serious illness, hospitalization and death,” he said.
He added that the reason for the emergence of these variants was because there was still a large proportion of the eligible population to be vaccinated.
According to him, this gives the virus time to mutate and fight back.
“It is important that we protect ourselves and our loved ones jab. Our vaccination exercise has been expanded to allow easier access for all eligible individuals.
“All vaccination sites are open to eligible individuals 18 years of age and older for the first, second, and booster doses. We call on Nigerians to take advantage of this opportunity in the ongoing mass vaccination exercise to get vaccinated against COVID-19,” she said.
Representative in Nigeria
Meanwhile, UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, Dr. Peter Hawkins, revealed that the government had used $298 million for the procurement of the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine totaling approximately 30 million doses.
Hawkins noted that this was a compromise and that the recall occurs as it becomes available and required.
“Nigeria so far, but the actual figure received was 51,014,140 doses. There are 10 million that are being stockpiled ready to go into Nigeria,” she said.
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Source: NAN
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