FG to offer child immunisation services at COVID vaccination sites

The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) says plans are underway to integrate the mass COVID vaccination campaign with child immunisation and other primary health care (PHC) services.

Faisal Shuaib, NPHCDA executive director, said this on Tuesday at a media briefing on the progress of COVID vaccination in Nigeria.

Shuaib said the country’s vaccination exercise has been expanded to ensure that more eligible Nigerians get vaccinated.

“We would also like to inform the general public that in this phase of COVID-19 mass vaccination, we plan to integrate the campaign with childhood immunisation and other PHC services,” he said.

“What this simply means is that alongside the COVID-19 vaccines, childhood vaccines will also be available at COVID-19 vaccination sites.

“Consequently, parents or guardians with children aged zero to 23 months are urged to take them along to the vaccination sites. The childhood vaccines protect against polio, whooping cough, measles, yellow fever, tetanus, tuberculosis, and other childhood preventable diseases.

“This is to ensure that while we are trying so hard to control the transmission of COVID-19, we do not neglect other PHC services or even have outbreaks of childhood vaccine-preventable diseases on our hands.

“We urge you to please tell your colleagues, friends and loved ones to go to the vaccination sites or health centres nearest to them with their zero to 23 months old children for vaccination against COVID-19 and childhood vaccine-preventable diseases.”

The executive director also said 14,093,873 eligible persons have received the first dose of the COVID vaccine in Nigeria, while 5,252,406 persons have been fully vaccinated — with Nasarawa, Jigawa, FCT, Ogun and Kwara being the top five performing states on COVID vaccine uptake.

He called on governors to convene a meeting of LGA chairmen, traditional rulers, politicians, and religious leaders to charge them with the responsibility of ensuring that residents within their constituencies are vaccinated.

“The governors should charge the LGA chairmen and health teams to develop daily, weekly and monthly COVID-19 and childhood vaccination targets based on the total eligible populations,” he added.