Governor Yahaya Bello’s led government of Kogi State has finally received the delivery of about 16, 900 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.
Naija News reports that the government took the delivery of the remedy on Monday night with vaccination scheduled to commence in the state on Tuesday.
The Executive Director of Kogi State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Abubakar Yakubu, who led a team of officials of the agency and Kogi Ministry of Health to receive the vaccines at the National Programme on Immunisation Unit of the State Central Medical Store, Lokoja, said that the most awaited COVID-19 vaccines arrived Kogi from Abuja at about 7:40 pm.
Speaking to newsmen shortly after taking delivery of the vaccines, Yakubu said the state was well prepared for the vaccination exercise.
He said: ”We have about 16,900 doses of the vaccine, and by tomorrow Tuesday we hope to flag off the campaign in the Ministry of Health. The first-line of recipients of the vaccines are the health workers which will be demonstrated on Tuesday by 12 noon at the ministry.”
”The vaccine administration will be followed by the frontline essential non-health workers like the police, military, NSCDC, Custom men among others,” Yakubu said.
He added that the Ministry intended to carry out the campaign as efficient as it could because the state was a bit behind schedule compared to other states, which had almost completed their 10 days mandatory campaign for the administration of the vaccines. According to him, the state was initially expecting about 45, 000 doses of the vaccines from NPHCDA, which accounted for one per cent of the total population of Kogi State.
”But to our surprise, we are being supplied with 16,900 doses now, I think there will be further reconciliation to send the balance of the doses as soon as possible,” he said.
Naija News recalls that months ago, Governor Bello claimed that every inch of soil in Kogi State is a potent cure for the COVID-19 pandemic.