Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu has launched mass vaccination campaign against the COVID-19 virus as part of efforts aimed at mitigating the potential damage that the further spread of the COVID-19 virus may cause.
The campaign targeted at ensuring that four million residents of the state are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 before the end of the year was spurred by the need for Lagos to achieve herd immunity against the global pandemic and in furtherance of the quest to eliminate opportunities for the COVID-19 virus to spread in Lagos communities.
Speaking during the flag-off ceremony of the vaccination campaign tagged: “Count me in! 4 million Lagosians Vaccinated Against COVID-19 Campaign’ held on the sidelines of the 7th African Conference on One Health and Biosecurity at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Sanwo-Olu noted that the Mass Vaccination Campaign which commenced Wednesday 27th October 2021 will run till Saturday, December 25th, 2021.
He stated that the mass vaccination campaign is in tandem with his promise and mandate to vaccinate 30% of the Lagos population within the next one year, adding that if the target vaccination of four million residents is achieved, the state will be closer to reaching its promise to vaccinate 30% of the population within one year.
He said his administration realized quickly the role of vaccination in mitigating the third wave. He noted that based on the availability of COVID vaccines and in alignment with the Federal mandate, Lagos commenced the COVID-19 vaccination campaign on the 15th of March 2021 with the first phase targeting health workers and frontline workers.
“This first phase saw the vaccination of 400,000 persons with at least the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine received from the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) and 250,000 persons were also fully vaccinated with the first and second dose of the vaccine”, he said.
He disclosed that Lagos State is currently in the second phase of the vaccination campaign and presently, the State has successfully vaccinated a total of 800,000 people with the first dose of the Moderna and a total of 310,000 persons fully vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine.
“This has brought the State to a total number of individuals vaccinated with the first dose of either AstraZeneca or Moderna to 1.2 million and fully vaccinated individuals to 550,000 accounting for just about four per cent of the target population.
“With a full understanding that a substantial proportion of the population will need to be vaccinated to reduce the impact of the ongoing spread of the COVID-19 virus and prevent the re-emergence of the catastrophes witnessed during the previous waves by a potential fourth wave, the State has developed a robust vaccination strategy leveraging on both the strengths we have in the public and private sectors of our healthcare system”, he said.
Earlier in his address, the Executive Director of NPHCDA, Dr Faisal Shuaib expressed confidence that meeting and surpassing the target of fully vaccinating four million Lagosians against the global pandemic before Christmas is achievable.
He said: “We are confident that with the hands-on leadership of the Governor and the “can-do” spirit of Lagosians, this is achievable. My confidence is hinged on the fact that Lagos State has been leading other states in the utilization of Vaccines available in-country. This is not unexpected as this is the only state where the Governor is the Incident Manager of the COVID-19 response.
“The critical position of Lagos as the major gateway into the country has made it very vulnerable. What we have therefore set out to do is to proactively ensure that as our citizens who live abroad return home for Christmas, Lagosians are not infected with new strains of the Delta virus. As you are aware, there is already a fourth wave in the UK. We do not want a fourth wave of COVID-19 in Lagos or anywhere in Nigeria for that matter”.
