As the administration of vaccine in the country begins on March 5, the Nigeria Governors Forum, NGF, says it would facilitate timely release of counterpart funds from state governments, to ensure the vaccine roll-out exercise runned smoothly.
This is contained in a communique signed by the Forum’s chairman and governor of Ekiti, Mr Kayode Fayemi issued at the end of its emergency meeting held on Wednesday and made available to ASHENEWS on Friday.
Nigeria received 3.9 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine as part of the COVAX facility arrangement, which administration will begin on the 5th of March 2021 at the National Hospital.
The governors, who deliberated on the administration of the first batch of the COVAX AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, received briefing from the Executive Secretary of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, NPHCDA, Dr. Faisal Shuaib in the company of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Chairman of the Presidential Tax Force (PTF) on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, on the vaccine roll-out plan for the country.
Fayemi said that the meeting also received updates on the planned vaccination exercise from the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire; the Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu; and members of the Forum’s COVID-19 Technical Advisory Group led by Professor Oyewale Tomori.
The governors promised “to monitor vaccine administration in their states through a vaccine implementation dashboard.”
The governors also called on the Federal government to take necessary steps to support logistics and inoculation activities in states.
The forum also resolved on the following:
i. Initiate the launch of the vaccination programme in all States from 10th March 2021;
ii. Ensure strict compliance and prioritization of the list of eligible persons to be vaccinated starting with all frontline workers, support staff, COVID-19 rapid response teams, workers in lab networks, isolation and treatment centres as well as tertiary and specialist hospitals. Strategic leaders will also be vaccinated to give confidence to the public on the safety of the vaccine. The second phase will prioritize older adults (50 and above) while the 3rd and 4th phases will focus on adults (18 – 49) with co-morbidities such as hypertension, diabetes, lung disease, and other health conditions; and adults (18 – 49 years) without any underlying health condition and the rest of the population;
iii. Actively monitor vaccine administration in their states through a vaccine implementation dashboard;
iv. Facilitate the timely release of counterpart funds from state governments to ensure the vaccine roll-out exercise runs smoothly;
v. Upscale all vaccine communication and advocacy mechanisms already in place in states to reduce the level of vaccination hesitancy amongst Nigerians;
vi. Provide adequate security to all state and local government-owned cold stores that will be used for storing the vaccine.
