The federal government yesterday disclosed that there is a decline in the coverage of COVID-19 in the new year, 2023 even as the target of the population to be vaccinated with COVID-19 vaccine has increased .
The Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) Faisal Shuiab, in a briefing in Abuja yesterday, said “In 2023, there is an increase in the eligible target population from 111,773,503 to 115,983,921 persons due to the new cohort of persons that have turned 18 years.
“So, as at 7th January 2023, there is a slight decline in the COVID-19 coverage for the fully vaccinated persons for COVID-19 vaccines from 56.7% to 55.2%”,.
According to the Executive Director “a total of 76,105,997 (65.6%) persons have received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, while only 9,875,715 have received the booster”,.
He recalled that, “In 2020, Nigeria targeted vaccinating 70% of the 111,773, 503 eligible target population that are 18 years and above with COVID-19 vaccines by the end of December 2022.
Meanwhile, the Executive Director said Nigeria has deployed several indigenous and innovative strategies to reach out to the eligible target population.
He said the Country is currently still implementing the SCALES 3.0 strategy using the Johnson and Johnson Covid-19 vaccine.
As of December 31st, 2022, he said a total of 63,427,466 (56.7%) eligible Nigerians were fully vaccinated with COOVID-19 vaccines; 75,585,197 (67.6%) of eligible persons have so far received at least 1 dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
According to him, only 9,637,809 persons have received their booster doses.
He noted that, as at today, Jigawa, Nasarawa, Kaduna, Osun and Kano still top the rest of the states with eligible population fully vaccinated with COVID-19 Vaccines.
The last 5 least performing states, the Executive Director said, include Rivers, Bayelsa, Ondo, Kogi and Ebonyi.
He said the Agency working with partners is taking the following priority actions to improve on COVID-19 vaccine uptake:
The NPHCDA boss maintained that the States have been segregated into categories based on their current performance to allow the Agency (NPHCDA) focus on low-performing states in other to boost coverage and achieve the desired 70% herd immunity, while the process of routinization of the COVID-19 vaccination will also start.
With the lessons learnt from the ongoing resurgence of COVID-19 in China, UK and USA, strategies have also been developed to improve on the number of persons that have received the booster doses in the country.
He said NPHCDA in collaboration with the FMOH and other stakeholders will continue to sustain support to the states/LGAs for social mobilization activities through engagement and dialogues with religious/political/traditional leaders, TV/Radio programs and jingles, town announcers, and engagement of mobile operators.
The ED stressed that the Government will continue to sustain mobilization for the required additional resources (human, vaccine distribution, logistics etc.) for the full implementation of the SCALES 3.0 strategy.
He further said efforts were also ongoing to strengthen Integration of COVID-19 vaccination into routine immunization and other PHC services with focus on PHC strengthening
The executive Director called on all eligible persons in the country that are yet to be vaccinated with COVID-19 vaccines to visit the nearest health facility or vaccination site to receive the vaccine.
He also called on all that have been fully vaccinated, but yet to receive their booster doses, to please visit the vaccination sites for their booster
