Faisal Shuaib, executive director and chief executive
officer, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), says
provisions would be made for President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice-President Yemi
Osinbajo to receive the COVID-19 vaccine on live television.
Around 100,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine are
expected in the country at the end of January.
Speaking at the media briefing of the presidential task
force (PTF) on COVID-19, held in Abuja on Thursday, Shuaib said administering
the vaccine on live TV is part of efforts to promote awareness.
He added that frontline health workers would also be given
priority on receiving the vaccine when the doses arrive Nigeria.
“We will like to see
a situation where Mr. president, the vice-president, the SGF, critical leaders
come and take the vaccine in the full glare of the public to demonstrate that
these vaccines are safe. So we have to make provisions for those,” he said.
“Even in developed countries, what we have seen is that
apart from the prioritisation of health workers, you have to also identify
critical leaders that you don’t want them to be wiped off by the virus. For
example, in warfare, if you want to destroy your enemies, you look for specific
leaders, captains, the generals; once you decapitate them, then the soldiers
will become weak.
“So, as much as possible, you do not want to also leave your
leaders vulnerable to COVID-19, it doesn’t mean you want to prioritise
politicians; that is not correct. I emphasised during the last briefing that we
will prioritise our health workers because they are the ones in direct contact
with cases in isolation units.”
At the PTF briefing on Tuesday, Shuaib had said the country
hopes to get 42 million doses through the COVAX initiative, to ensure that 40
percent of the country’s population receives the vaccine in 2021, while another
30 percent will be vaccinated in 2022.
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