COVID-19 Vaccination: Cross River health centres records high compliance

Over three million Nigerians have so far been fully vaccinated in Cross River state.

The figure covers all the states in the federation including the Federal Capital Territory.

In Cross River state, the state government used all the communication apparatus available to educate the people about COVID-19 vaccination. The rate of vaccination was as a result of high level of enlightenment and media awareness.

The messages were well received and about five hundred thousand people have been vaccinated so far as at the last data by the Cross River state Primary Health Care Board.

In Ikom Local Government Area, there are various vaccination points where citizens were made to go for vaccination.

According to the Head of Clinic at the Primary Health Care Centre Edo, in Ikom Local Government, Grace Nsing, over six hundred persons have vaccinated at the centre.

She said that as a Community Health Officer in the Primary Health Care Centre and COVID-19 vocal person in the ward, she also goes to churches to vaccinate, adults willingly went out to get the vaccines.

“There are more than six thousand people in this Abanyom Ward and more than six hundred of them have been fully vaccinated. People willingly come to the health centre to vaccination. We have vaccines and our vaccines are kept in good temperature. People are still coming to collect,” Grace said.

A community leader, Chief Francis Tatay, said that with the help of the local authorities, people voluntarily collected the vaccines.

“Our local government chairman and some information people went round the community to announce about the COVID-19 vaccination. Some people didn’t want to collect but as leaders we use ourselves as example. When we take and people saw that we did not die, they also went to take. Some people say the drug will affect manhood.

“We show them that it does not as my wife put to bed last month. God help us and people saw that everything they were afraid of didn’t happen,” Chief Tatay said.

He added that he has not heard about anyone that has died from the vaccine in the community.

The Director General of the Cross River State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr. Janet Ekpenyong, says more women or female have been vaccinated than their male counterpart in the state.

“However we’re still very much involved in advocating and sensitizing the men on the importance of taking care of their health and why it’s also important for them to increase the uptake of the COVID-19 vaccination” Dr Ekpenyong said.

She said that Cross River state was on the verge of getting to the five hundred thousand benchmark.

“I’m glad that at least we found a very, a more sustainable way of of curbing the virus which of cause is a more reliable way and that’s vaccination and so far in Cross River state we have about five hundred thousand people vaccinated as at the last data.We had just a little above four hundred and eighty thousand people so that we are almost getting to the five hundred thousand mark,” Ekpenyong said.

She said that the state has to leverage on advocacy and continuous education of the people on the importance of vaccination.

Despite the relaxation of some of the COVID-19 protocols by the Nigerian government, people are still encouraged to get vaccinated to prevent COVID-19.