The Oyo State Government has flagged off Scale 3.0 vaccination campaign to further protect residents against the Covid-19 pandemic.
The State Commissioner for Health, Dr Taiwo Ladipo, while speaking, at the flag-off vaccination campaign held at the Oyo State Primary Health Care Board, Agodi Secretariat, Ibadan, said only about 30 percent of the people in the state have been vaccinated.
The Commissioner noted that the state’s target is to ensure at least 70 percent of people residing in the state are vaccinated.
Ladipo pointed out that over 70 percent of the people in Oyo State are unprotected from the virus and with the fourth wave of covid-19 gradually sweeping Nigeria, more people needs to be vaccinated.
He said: “Up to 30 percent of people have been vaccinated with either one or more doses. The goal is not 30 percent but 70 percent. We need to ensure that people have the vaccine. This is another opportunity for those that have not had 3 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine to do so.
“The battle against Covid-19 is not lost, but we do not want to lose, so everyone needs to be involved with the vaccination process” Ladipo noted.
Ramping up vaccination
Earlier, the Executive Secretary, Oyo State Primary Health Care Board, Dr Muideen Olatunji, disclosed that the Scale 3.0 Covid-19 vaccination campaign was to aggressively ramp up vaccination in the state as well as protect lives, even as Nigeria enters the fourth wave of Covid-19.
He revealed that Oyo State had various variants of the Covid-19 vaccines in store.
He affirmed that the vaccines are safe as proven by many people that have taken the vaccine since 2020.
Olatunji, urged everyone to preach the benefits attributed to the Covid-19 vaccination to members of their communities, in order to make the state attain herd immunity against the virus.
Likewise, the World Health Organisation’s State Coordinator, Dr Philips Zorto, decried poor uptake of health interventions like vaccination in the state.
He dmonished residents of the state to get vaccinated and mobilise others for the exercise. He revealed that the number of people vaccinated against COVID-19 in the state were few unlike other states in the country.
Vaccination team
In another development, the Chairman, Association of Community Pharmacists, Oyo State branch, Mr Abiodun Gbadamosi, stated that twenty-four pharmacy shops across the state had been integrated into the vaccination team to provide Covid-19 vaccination in the community.
He disclosed that the pilot project involving the Oyo State Primary Health Care Board, USAID Medicines, Technologies and Pharmaceutical Services programme and Breakthrough Action Nigeria, is to ensure more people have access to the vaccine and stem vaccine hesitancy at the community level.
Emmanuel Ukoh
