Kogi State Government on Monday night received about 16, 900 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine with vaccination scheduled to commence in the state today.
The Executive Director of Kogi State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Abubakar Yakubu, and a team of officials from the Kogi Ministry of Health received the vaccines at the National Programme on Immunisation Unit of the State Central Medical Store, Lokoja.
Speaking to journalists after receiving the vaccines, Yakubu said that the most awaited COVID-19 vaccines arrived in Kogi from Abuja at about 7:40 pm, saying the state was well prepared for it.
The Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, had insisted that he won’t take the COVID-19 vaccine, noting that he’s hale and healthy and has no reason to do so.
He added that administering the vaccine was not a priority in the state as there were more pertinent issues to be addressed such as insecurity, Lassa fever, and yellow fever.
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”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,” Yakubu added.
”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 explained that the ministry intended to carry out the campaign though the state was behind schedule compared to other states, which had almost completed their 10 days mandatory campaign for the administration of the vaccines.
Yakubu noted that the state was initially expecting about 45,000 doses of the vaccines from NPHCDA, which accounted for one percent 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.
