COVID-19: Abia, Taraba states recorded lowest vaccinations, says NPHCDA

The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) has identified Abia and Taraba states, as having the lowest number of COVID-19 vaccinated people, even as over 800,000 people had so far been vaccinated in the country, the NPHCDA said on its official Twitter handle on Thursday.

Reports said that Nigeria kicked off the vaccination since March 5, 2021, with health workers as the first beneficiaries, being the most high at risk group to the infection as first responders.

The NPHCDA had announced that the vaccine roll-out would be in four phases, starting with health workers, frontline workers, COVID-19 rapid response team, laboratory network, policemen, petrol station workers and strategic leaders.

“Phase 2 – Older adults aged 50 years and above. Those with co-morbidities aged 18 – 49 years of age

“Phase 3 – Those in states/LGAs with high disease burden and who missed phases 1 and 2.

“Phase 4 – Other eligible population as vaccines become available,” it’s said.

According to the agency, as of April 1, 818,865 eligible Nigerians had so far been vaccinated, with Abia – 1,874 and Taraba – 2,760, having the lowest number of vaccinated people.

The NPHCDA said that Lagos state had vaccinated 152,261 people; making it the highest in the country, followed by Ogun with 51,608, Kaduna-49, 759, Kano-39,818, Katsina- 38,476, and Bauchi- 34,795 .

The agency stated that the proportion of eligible people vaccinated in the country was 40.7 percent, as at April 1, as it reiterated the national plan to vaccinate 109 million people over a period of two years.

Recalled that the COVID-19 vaccination had commenced in all states across the country, except, for Kogi, with only five recorded cases, that is yet to receive doses of the vaccines, due to lack of storage facility.

At the start of the vaccination, the country received over 3.94 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines through COVAX, a UN-backed effort that promises access to vaccines for up to 20 per cent of participating countries’ population.

An additional 300,000 doses of the vaccine was also received from telecom giant, MTN, as part of its contribution to Africa.