The Lagos State Government has released list of 88 health facilities approved to provide vaccination across the 20 Local Government Areas.

Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, said vaccination can only be obtained at any of the 88 accredited facilities listed.

“Vaccination outside of these locations in Lagos State is highly prohibited and will attract heavy sanctions through our regulatory agencies,” he said.

The commissioner said the vaccination will be conducted in four phases.

While phase 1 is for healthcare workers, COVID-19 response team, ports of entry staff (air, land, and seaports), laboratory network, judiciary, military, police, other security agencies, petrol station workers, teachers, press, and other frontline workers; phase two is for people aged 50 years and above as well as those living with co-morbidities who are between 18-49 years of age.

Phase three is for people in the LGAs with the highest burden of disease and those who missed phases 1 and 2 and phase 4 for other eligible populations.

Of this first tranche of 3.92 million doses allocated to Nigeria, Lagos State received 507,742 doses of the vaccine in the early hours of Tuesday, March 9, 2021, and has commenced its first phase of distribution.

How to register

He explained that a combined approach will be utilised for the registration for those that qualify for COVID-19 vaccination in phase1:

Electronic self-Registration of Health Care Workers and other frontline workers using a dedicated URL. Each enrollee is expected to pre-register on https://www.nphcdaict.com.ng or https://www.vaccination.gov.ng to fill the form with their qualifying verifiable details, preferred vaccination site, date, and time. A vaccination ID will be generated, and this should be taken to the chosen health facility along with a means of ID. A confirmation text message and email will be sent to each enrollee after successfully registering for the vaccination.

Assisted electronic registration of Health Care and essential workers who are unable to complete self-registration due to lack of android devices, poor network, or not being tech-savvy.

“Although the registration portal is open to the public, ONLY eligible participants within phase 1 should register for the vaccination now. More information on the vaccination of other participants in phases 2 to 4 will be communicated subsequently,” he added.

How to report side effects

He explained that the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine has been declared safe by the World Health Organisation, but most vaccines have some common side effects, which are not unique to the COVID-19 vaccine and which typically only last for 24 to 48 hours.

According to him, some of these common adverse events that could be experienced include: Pain or tenderness at the injection site, tiredness, chills, joint pains, headache, fever, muscle pain and nausea.

He said: “Should any of these side effects become problematic, kindly call the number of the LGA Disease Surveillance Notification Officer—provided at the back of the COVID-19 vaccination card—for guidance, and/or return to the same health facility for further investigations and treatment.