The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) has said Nasarawa state has again overtaken other states in the COVID-19 mass vaccination campaign in Nigeria.
The North-central state, which was earlier in the lead before it was overtaken by Jigawa, a North-western state, reclaimed its leading position within 48 hours.
The executive director, NPHCDA, Faisal Shuaib, made this known in an interview with newsmen on Monday in Abuja while providing an update on the country’s vaccination campaign.
Mr Shuaib said that Jigawa State recently took the lead by displacing Nasarawa state, only for a turnaround in less than 48 hours.
The NPHCDA boss added that Zamfara, Delta and Cross River states have also made great strides towards joining the top five performing states as of December 27, 2021.
He added that Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Jigawa and Osun States were the top five leading with high uptake and also contributed 36 per cent to the number of vaccinated persons.
Mr Shuaib added that almost 10 million eligible persons have been fully vaccinated against the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
He said; “As of December 26, 2021, in 36 States and the FCT. 9,765,729 eligible persons targeted for COVID-19 vaccination received the first dose, while 4,363,620 got the second dose (fully vaccinated).”
The official added that the proportion of eligible people vaccinated in the country for their first dose were 8.7 per cent, while the proportion of eligible people vaccinated for their second dose were 3.9 per cent as of Dec. 24, 2021.
He explained that vaccines were the best way to protect people from coronavirus and would save thousands of lives.
“Three vaccines have now been approved for use in Nigeria and the government has secured early access to more vaccine doses.
The Nigeria COVID-19 vaccine rollout is a big vaccination programme in history. The goal remains to vaccinate as many people as quickly as possible,” he added.
According to him, the NPHCDA aims to provide advice and information at every possible opportunity to support those getting the vaccine ”and to anyone who might have questions about the vaccination process.”
He said the resources are available to support communications.
“For the full list of COVID-19 vaccination sites nationwide, click here,” he added.
The executive director further said the agency’s website also provides guidelines for persons that have completed two doses of AstraZeneca, Moderna, Pfizer Bio-NTech or one dose of Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
COVID-19 booster shot is given when a person has completed their vaccine doses.
