…Canada donates close to 3m doses J&J vaccines
By Hassan Zaggi
The Federal Government has charge states across the country to, as a matter of urgency, step up actions to flag off the SCALES 3.0 strategy and follow with intensive actions to ensure that every eligible adult and child are vaccinated.
The Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Faisal Shuaib, gave the charge while receiving close to three million doses of Johnson& Johnson single dose COVID-19 vaccine donated by the Canadian government, in Abuja, Thursday.
“Our SCALES 3.0 also offers opportunity for childhood vaccination and other PHC services for clients alongside the COVID-19 vaccination.
“What this simply means is that parents can take their eligible children for vaccination against polio, yellow fever, measles and other vaccine preventable childhood diseases in the same locations where the adults receive COVID-19 vaccines.
“Our mobile teams are also in possession of all these vaccines when they visit your homes. Please welcome them and present yourselves and your eligible children for vaccination as may be applicable,” he said.
Dr. Shuaib, however, disclosed that the federal government has designed a performance-based incentive to improve uptake of COVID-19 vaccines and other PHC services in the states and the communities.
He expressed optimism that “Nigeria and the rest of the world will overcome COVID-19 pandemic and recover rapidly from its social and economic adversities.”
While giving update on the COVID-19 vaccination uptake in the country, Dr. Shuaib, said: “As at today, Thursday August 18th 2022, 40,700,979 of our eligible population have received the first dose while 28,659,698 persons have been fully vaccinated, this represents 25.6% of the eligible population. 2,666,830 of the fully vaccinated persons have received their booster doses.”
He applauded the Canadian government for the donation of the vaccines which he said, will be of immense help to Nigeria.
“I am pleased to inform you that the Canadian government has donated 2,649,600 doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines to Nigeria.
“We are here today to mark the official handover of this donation to Nigeria by the Canadian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Ambassador Jamie Christoff.
“On behalf of the Government and people of Nigeria, I want to sincerely thank the Government of Canada for providing this much-needed support.
“This donation is critical to helping Nigeria ramp up her vaccination roll out process.
“Johnson & Johnson offers a single-dose opportunity for full vaccination, which means if you take one dose of the vaccine, you are regarded as a fully vaccinated person. However, we strongly recommend a booster dose after 2 months of taking the initial dose to strengthen your level of immunity against COVID-19. A second dose of J&J vaccine serves as the booster dose,” he said.
