Faisal Shuaib, chief executive
officer of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), has
updated Nigerians on the government’s progress towards deploying the COVID-19
vaccines.
He gave the update at the weekly
briefing of the presidential task force (PTF) on COVID-19 on Monday.
Here are seven things to know
about the federal government’s vaccine rollout plan.
Who is eligible to take the vaccine?
Those eligible for vaccination
were identified using the WHO vaccine allocation framework and prioritisation
roadmap, as well as the disease burden data from the NCDC.
They are the frontline healthcare
workers and support staff, including those that work in high-risk areas such as
point of entry workers, rapid response teams, contact tracing teams, COVID-19
vaccination teams and strategic leadership.
Also included are people aged 50
years and above, people aged 18 to 49 years with significant co-morbidities and
additional at-risk groups.
Those below the age of 18 are not
eligible to take the vaccine.
Will pregnant women be vaccinated?
The government also plans to
vaccinate pregnant women. However, the decision to vaccinate any pregnant woman
will be made in consultation with her healthcare provider.
Her risk of contracting COVID-19
will also be put into consideration when deciding whether or not to vaccinate.
How many Nigerians will receive the vaccine?
After excluding those that are
under 18 years old, the government plans to vaccinate approximately 109 million
eligible Nigerians.
How long will it take to
vaccinate them?
The government plans to vaccinate
all eligible Nigerians over the course of two years.
How many doses of the vaccine are expected?
The government expects 57 million
doses of vaccines from the COVAX facility and the African Union. A commitment
of 1.5 million doses and 100,000 doses of AstraZeneca has also been made by MTN
and the government of India respectively. Altogether, Nigeria is expected to
receive a total of 58.6 million doses.
How will vaccinations be done?
The national technical working
group (TWG) developed a strategy of pre-registration and scheduling of the target
population to avoid overcrowding at vaccination centers. The strategy is called
the TEACH approach.
T: Traditional method of
vaccinating target populations using desk review of available data sources,
identifying the vaccination sites and rolling out.
E: Electronic self-registration
for health workers and the public; a link that provides an online form will be
provided.
A: Assisted electronic
registration.
C: Concomitant e-registration
during walk-in to fixed sites/health facilities.
H: House-to-house registration
using volunteers for an additional push to rapidly increase the e-registration.
Who will carry out the vaccinations?
Apart from the over 60,000 health
workers who carry out routine immunisation services nationwide, additional
personnel will be engaged to achieve adequate coverage level of vaccinations.
In addition to this, a training
manual has been developed to help health workers be effective and efficient in
their vaccine delivery strategy.
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