Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Thursday
explained why he has not yet taken the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.
Many governors have taken the vaccine but Sanwo-Olu is yet
to take it even when the state took delivery of the vaccines early Tuesday
morning.
Speaking during the official unveiling of Evercare Hospital,
a tertiary health centre in Lekki, Lagos on Thursday, Sanwo-Olu said he just
wanted to abide by the rule that healthcare personnel should take the vaccines
first.
He said hopefully, he would take the vaccine on Friday.
“I just want to follow the rules. The rules are that the
health workers at the frontline should first take it. So, I am pleading with
the Commissioner of Health to be gracious and let me also take.
“So, they have given me a date, tomorrow (Friday) and I am
hoping that they would have started giving it to the health workers.”
However, Sanwo-Olu restated his administration’s commitment
to improve healthcare infrastructure as well as make services more affordable
and accessible for residents in Lagos State.
He said his administration is working with the private
sector to reduce medical tourism and brain drain through provision of
infrastructure and retraining of personnel in the health sector.
The governor disclosed that his administration spent
billions of naira last year on procurement of health equipment, adding that the
equipment are on the way and when they arrive, they will complement what the
country has in public health facilities.
He said: “For us as a government, we have raised our
strength on health, especially our capital expenditure on health. We are
currently renovating to a world class, six of our general hospitals. We are
currently building two new general hospitals. We are building a children
hospital. We are building an international research centre. All these are meant
to complement what we have currently.
“We will also scale up tertiary health centre, Lagos State
Teaching Hospital (LASUTH). We will be discussing with you in the next coming
months what we want to turn LASUTH to. All of these are to make healthcare
accessible and affordable.
“We are trying to stop medical tourism; people traveling
several thousand kilometres to go and secure or get health treatment. With good
facilities, we will bring down the total cost of health care and provide
quality health care.”
Also speaking, Lagos State Commissioner for Health,
Professor Akin Abayomi, said the Lagos State Government will create enabling
environment for private sector to change the face of healthcare services in the
State and Nigeria.
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