Cross River State Government has vaccinated more than 700 thousand people in order to achieve herd immunity against the spread of coronavirus.
According to the Director General of the Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr. Janet Ekpenyong, the push to vaccinate more people was being driven from the national to the state levels with the hope to achieve 70 percent vaccination target.
Dr. Ekpenyong, who was speaking to journalists in Calabar, the capital of Cross River State, south-south Nigeria, said that so far more than 25 percent of residents have been vaccinated.
She explained, “There is still COVID in our midst. However the Nigerian Government had to reduce some of the protocols based on the recommendations of NCDC (Nigeria Centre for Disease Control). But, we still have to maintain some physical distance, use our nose mask in crowded environment and wash our hands regularly. The push for vaccination has gone up in Nigeria and other countries.
“Vaccination is the best way of overcoming pandemics and that has helped us (Nigeria) over the years in preventing some of these viral diseases. So, as more people are getting vaccinated, Nigeria is pushing towards achieving herd immunity, which is a good thing for us because the more people are vaccinated the less transmission,” she said.
Strategizing to achieve
The Director General further explained that in Cross River, the agency was effectively collaborating with the State Ministry of Health to implement the recently launched SCALE 3.0 strategy to achieve vaccination.
She stated that with a population of more than 4.2 million people, there was need for Cross River to actually scale up and push for increased vaccination.
Ekpenyong said, “The Nigerian Government recently introduced the scale 3 point zero strategy geared towards ensuring that vaccines are available everywhere not only in facilities. Health workers will be going to strategic places, markets, worship centres, anywhere we know we can get the population.
“You know that Cross River was awarded the 2022 Best Immunization Performing State in south-south Nigeria. We also emerged the best performing state in the COVID-19 SCALE 1.0 exercise and the SCALE 2.0 and in this SCALE 3.0, we are in a good position,” she hinted.
The Director General further said, “So, we have also intensified sensitization to create demand at the grassroots. We have a lot of collaboration with key stakeholders, especially with people that we know would make our work easier such as traditional and religious institutions, education ministry and others.”
According to her, the government and partners were prepared to take COVID-19 vaccines to communities in the valleys, on the hills, in the creeks and those with difficult terrains keeping in mind the very peculiar terrain of Cross River in south-south Nigeria.
She, however, expressed the hope that with the strategy and support of partners, Cross River would achieve vaccination coverage of about two million people before the end of 2022.
