Workers in Nigeria may soon be mandated to take the Covid-19 vaccines to ensure safety at work places.
Presidential Steering committee PSC on Covid-19 in Nigeria announced the new mandate at its joint national briefing in Abuja, Nigeria.
The Executive Director, National Primary Health-care Development Agency, Dr Faisal Shu’aib said the decision was to ensure that the work place is safe for all workers and to move towards achieving herd immunity.
“In order to end this pandemic, we must achieve enough level of population immunity; that the virus essentially becomes a nuisance and no longer a threat. The only way to achieve this is if eligible persons come out for vaccination and observe the non-pharmaceutical interventions. The Covid-19 vaccines remain the most effective tool against this virus”, he said
Safety of vaccines
Dr Shu’aib restated that all vaccines are safe and capable of protecting people against the disease.
He noted that the PSC does not promote preference of one vaccine brand over the other and strongly discourage mixing of vaccine brand for first and second doses.
“Recent study by the United States Centre for Disease Control (USCDC) which examined 600,000 Covid-19 cases, revealed that people who were unvaccinated were about four and a half times more likely to contract Covid-19. It further showed that those who are not vaccinated against Covid-19 were 11 times more likely to die of the disease and 10 times more likely to be hospitalized with the disease.
“We should also be mindful of the long-term effects of Covid-19 infection which is characterized by blood clotting disorders, lung and kidney problems”, Dr Shu’aib reiterated.
He however, reminded State Governments not to exceed their 50% utilization rates for Moderna in order to reserve the 2nd doses for all those already vaccinated.
“Most States have reached this percentage and priority is now focused on administering AstraZeneca vaccine as first dose vaccine in all States”.
Dr Shu’aib further encouraged States that are yet to publish their vaccination sites to do so across the various media platforms – Newspapers, radio, TV, and social media, to enable people locate their nearest vaccination site.
Nneka Ukachukwu
