COVID-19 Vaccination: As LASG Sets To Achieve Herd Immunity By May 2023

With a population of 15.4 millon, only about 27 per cent of residents living in Lagos are fully vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccines, I gathered.

This is even as the state government has intensified efforts to vaccinate up to 80 per cent of its populace, by May 2023, thereby achieving herd immunity.

Globally, as of 7 March 2023, there have been 759,408,703 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 6,866,434 deaths. In Nigeria, from 3rd January 2020 to 7 March 2023, there have been 266,593 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 3,155 deaths. More than 50 per cent of cases are recorded in the epicenter of the virus, Lagos State.

“COVID-19 virus is still here with us, silently killing Nigerians,” the state immunisation coordinator, Lagos state Primary Health Care Board, Dr Olubunmi Akinlade told me, adding that the only way to win this war, is to vaccinate about 80 per cent of Nigerians.

In Lagos State, the target was to vaccinate about 8,073,490 Lagosians, representing 54 per cent, but right now, the state has only vaccinated 27 per cent, Akinlade said.

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At a two-day media roundtable on uptake of Routine Immunisation and COVAX in Lagos, organised by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in conjunction with the National Orientation Agency (NOA) in Lagos State, it was revealed that only 2,606,457 residents are vaccinated with the first dose; 2171,686 were vaccinated with the 2nd dose; 703,635 had taken their first booster dose and only 47,035 had taken their second booster dose.

“The virus is still here with us, yet, the uptake is dwindling,” the state immunisation officer laments, adding that from the data above, some took only the first dose of the vaccine and never bothered to take the second or third doses, which she said are also necessary to be fully vaccinated.

To improve COVID-19 vaccination uptake in the state, Akinlade said the state government has set up about 458 mobile teams across the 20 LGAs in the state, to take the vaccine to wherever they can find people.

“We have noticed that people don’t want to leave their place of business to go to the nearest Primary Health Care Centres and get the COVID-19 vaccine. So we are taking the vaccines to them. We have also embarked on sensitisation campaign in the state, trying to sustain the aggressive awareness to improve COVID-19 vaccination. We have covered all the markets in the state. The target is to vaccinate 69,000 per day so that we can achieve herd immunity by May 2023,” she explained.

In his remarks at the forum, the Lagos state Director, National Orientation Agency, Dr Waheed Ishola, tasked the media to bring the issue of routine Immunisation and COVAX to the front burner,  by educating Nigerians on the need to achieve herd immunity as soon as possible.