The Lagos State government has shut down all COVID-19 vaccination centres across the state on Thursday.
The first phase of the exercise which began in Lagos on March 12, 2021 took an average of 20 days.
Disclosing why it shut down the vaccination centres, the state said it has come out of the 2nd wave of the pandemic successfully and ended the first dose of the vaccination exercise.
The State government acted following the directive of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, NPHCDA, that States should stop vaccination after administering half of the doses supplied to them to give opportunity for the second dose of the already vaccinated persons.
The first phase of the exercise which began in Lagos on March 12, 2021 took an average of 20 days.
In a press statement signed by the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof Akin Abayomi said the completed exercise would ensure that at least 1 per cent of Lagos residents receive the full complement of doses required to enable the protection the vaccine promises.
He said the target to achieve effective herd immunity was the vaccination of at least 60 per cent of the Lagos State population.
The State Commissioner for Health said the exercise ended on Tuesday 13th April 2021 and consequently, the government has shut down its entire vaccination centres.
With the number vaccinated in Lagos so far, the state has overshot half of the 507,000 doses allocated to it.
It could be recalled that Lagos State received 507,000 doses of the 3.92 million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID vaccine facilitated through the COVAX Facility to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Abayomi said: “Lagos State inoculated 257,756 persons, as of the 15th of April 2021, consisting of health workers, frontline workers including; security agents, ports of entry staff, judiciary, petrol station workers, contingency workers and strategic leaders.
“The government went a step further to vaccinate willing pensioners, people aged 70 and above, teachers and journalists during the same period. Lagos is the only state that has inoculated more than 200,000 residents during this period.”
Abayomi said the remaining doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine have been reserved at the Lagos State Cold Chain Store for the 2nd dose exercise, which would commence on the 28th of May, 2021, following the expiration of the 8-12 weeks interval as required by the manufacturers.
He encouraged Lagosians to check their vaccination cards for their next appointment dates and where possible to try to go to the same health facilities where they got their initial dose for their second dose.
“There is no need for citizens who have received the first dose to pre-register before going to the health facility for the second dose because their already captured details will only be updated with additional information after vaccination.
The commissioner added that the vaccine doses Will expire on 9th June, 2021
“The vaccines are due to expire on 9th July 2021. Our monitoring and evaluation quality assurance activity indicates that our cold chain distribution logistics has been maintained ensuring the integrity of the vaccines.
“As previously stipulated and according to the strategy of the Federal Government through the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, the COVID-19 vaccinations will be in four phases.
“Phase two will cover persons aged 50 years and above as well as those living with co-morbidities who are between 18-49 years of age. Phase three will be activated thereafter for people in the LGAs with the highest infections of the disease and those who missed phases one and two. Phase four will cover other eligible populations as more vaccines become available. The date of commencement of the Phase Two vaccination will be announced by the Federal Government in due course.”
Continuing, the Commissioner explained that of the 257,756 persons inoculated as of the 15th of April 2021, 59,444 (23.1 per cent) were health workers, 109,809 (42.6 per cent) were essential workers and 88,503 (34.3 per cent) were strategic leaders.
“Our gender distribution data indicated that we have vaccinated more females than males; with 131,283 females representing 50.9 percent and 126,473 males representing 49.1 percent vaccinated as of April 15th, 2021.”
