The Lagos State Government says it has vaccinated 5, 222 people with the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine after the rollout of the vaccine in the state.
The state Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, made this known in a statement while giving an update on the state’s COVID-19 vaccine administration on Tuesday in Lagos.
Lagos received 507,742 doses out of the 3.92 million doses of the COVAX facility AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine allocated to Nigeria.
Abayomi said that none of the people vaccinated experienced any serious adverse effect following the vaccination.
“A total of 268 people were vaccinated on March 12, while 4,954 were vaccinated on March 15,” he said.
According to him, the state started the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines on March 15 in 88 health facilities, including military and police hospitals, which have been selected to provide vaccination across the 20 local government areas.
“Vaccination can only be obtained at any of the 88 accredited facilities listed.
“Vaccination outside of these locations in Lagos State is highly prohibited, and will attract heavy sanctions through our regulatory agencies,” the commissioner warned.
He said that a combined approach would be utilised for registration of those that qualify for COVID-19 vaccination in phase one.
According to him, those to be vaccinated under the phase one are healthcare workers, COVID-19 Response Team (RRT), ports of entry staff (air, land and seaports), laboratory network and judiciary.
He listed others as military, police, other security agencies, petrol station workers, teachers, newsmen and other frontline workers, through use of “Electronic self-registration of healthcare workers and other frontline workers using a dedicated URL.
“Each enrollee is expected to pre-register on https://www.nphcdaict.com.ng or https://www.vaccination.gov.ng to fill the form with their qualifying verifiable details, preferred vaccination site, date and time.
“A vaccination ID will be generated, and this should be taken to the chosen healthcare facility along with a means of ID.
“A confirmation text message and e-mail will be sent to each enrollee after successfully registering for the vaccination,” he said.
The commissioner said that there would be assisted electronic registration of healthcare and essential workers who were unable to complete self-registration due to lack of android devices, poor network or not being tech-savvy.
“Although, the registration portal is open to the public, only eligible participants within phase one should register for the vaccination now.
“More information on the vaccination of other participants in phases two to four will be communicated subsequently,” he said.
On the side effects that might follow after vaccination, Abayomi said that most vaccines have some common side effects, which was not unique to the COVID-19 vaccine and typically last for only 24 to 48 hours.
He said that the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine had been declared safe by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Abayomi listed likely side effects of the vaccine to include pain or tenderness at the injection site, fatigue, chills, joint pain, headache, fever, muscle pain and nausea.
According to him, health workers have been extensively trained on the administration of the vaccine, vaccine safety and the aftercare of vaccination.
“Should any of these side effects become problematic, kindly call the number of the LGA Disease Surveillance Notification Officer (DSNO) provided at the back of the COVID-19 vaccination card for guidance, or return to the same health facility for further investigations and treatment.
“All vaccinated persons are also advised to download the MED SAFETY app monitored by NAFDAC,” the commissioner said.
He said the app could be downloaded on the iOS Store or Google Play store, and could be used to report any untoward event experienced after vaccination or any other adverse drug reactions experienced with the use of concomitant drugs.
NAN
