COVID-19:Lagos Deepens Mass Vaccination, Engages 135 Private Clinics

The Lagos state government has enrolled

135 private health facilities have been enrolled into its mass vaccination strategy aimed  at vaccinating four million residents against COVID-19  by the end of this year.

 The state government said the development brings to 360, the number of public and private vaccination sites in Lagos.

At a press conference in Lagos,Prof Akin Abayomi,  state commissioner for health, explained that the 360 vaccination sites, comprising the 135 private health facilities and 225 existing public vaccination sites have been earmarked for the mass vaccination campaign.

Noting that more private facilities would be added to the list, the commissioner said the enrolled private facilities were engaged after a rigorous selection and accreditation process that hinges on quality assurance, vaccine safety and follow-up care.

The commissioner said the state government decided to partner with the private sector to rapidly ramp up COVID-19 vaccination in order to achieve herd immunity.

He  added that the government leveraged on both the strengths of the public and private sectors of the healthcare system with a full understanding that a substantial proportion of the population will need to be vaccinated to mitigate the impact of a fourth wave in Lagos and reduce the impact of the spread of the COVID-19 virus and prevent the re-emergence of the catastrophes witnessed during the previous waves of the pandemic.

He said: “The decision to leverage on the private sector is based solely on our resolve to include private health facilities and corporate institutions as additional sites for the COVID-19 vaccination administration. This is in furtherance of effort to increase the reach and access to the available vaccines provided through the generous contributions and donations by the Federal Government and our donors.

“By doing this, we are once again recognizing the impact of the collaboration between the public and private sector for healthcare and strengthening the link for far-reaching initiatives in the State.

“We also understand that there are citizens, who for personal reasons, would prefer to receive the vaccine at the comfort of a private facility. It is important that such citizens should not be deprived access to the vaccine especially as this negates the principle of vaccine equity. Therefore, the involvement of the private sector is important”.

Abayomi added that the Lagos State Government, through the Primary Health Care Board, does not have the capacity alone to ramp up vaccination to a massive level in such a short time and before the deadline without partnering with the private sector.

He explained that the inclusion of the private health facilities into the public private partnership is similar to the strategy deployed by the state for escalating COVID-19 testing which resulted in a dramatic increase in testing done in Lagos from an average of 200 a day to over 2,000 a day, culminating in a total of 800,000 tests in less than a year and Lagos State accounting for more than 30% alone of all COVID-19 PCR tests done in Nigeria.